Here is the 2006 Waste Management #14 MB2 Motorsports Chevy Monte Carlo SS driven by Sterling Marlin, a former Daytona 500 winner, also in a Chevy. Note how low and long the front ends have become, adding to front downforce.
Chevy’s work earned them the impressive Daytona win right out of the box with a new car, but in NASCAR, you’re only as good as your last victory. So what are the engineers doing these days? Like most everyone else, they’re watching NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow (COT) very closely. The new racer made its debut as part of the NASCAR Nextel Media Tour hosted by Lowe's Motor Speedway amid many, many opinions. In fact, the car was the buzz of the Tour even to the point of eclipsing Toyota’s announcement about joining Nextel Cup racing in ‘07. Perhaps the most outspoken person was Dodge team owner, Felix Sabates who just came out and said, “I think the Car of Tomorrow is a bunch of crap, but that’s my opinion.”
The other MB2 team is the Army #01 driven by ‘Front Row’ Joe Nemechek. Here is one his cars parked in the assembly area next to one that is still being built. By the grille and valance openings, it looks like both are Intermediate (speedway) cars.
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Some Team Chevy drivers weren’t too thrilled with the COT, either. Kevin Harvick, driver of the GM Goodwrench #29 Monte Carlo SS said, “I think the car of tomorrow is great for the safety aspect. I think from a driver aspect inside the cockpit, it's safer. I think there are a lot of aspects of it that are safer.” Then ‘Happy’ Harvick took off the gloves, “I think it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen on the racetrack since 1985. It looks like an '85 Trans-Am car. I think it's going to be a hard sell to the manufacturers to make the car presentable to sell to the general public, to spend their money on to have something that looks like something that's gone back 20 years. They have to make it look better.” Little did he know all the manufacturers were already expressing that same thought to NASCAR.
