SHARPIE 500 - In retrospect - OPINION

It seems that the COT debuted well enough. They don't look great by themselves, but put them in a pack of cars in a short track circuit and you quickly forget the visual differences. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the race too much, but I surprised myself.

Some interesting observations:

Though he won the race, Kyle Busch thinks the new cars suck. I think he's just not used to having to be up on the wheel all day. I think he'll adapt.

These new cars will definitely show off who the real wheel men of the sport are as I expect drivers like Tony Stewart & Jeff Gordon will have a chance to show off their skills without aero dependencies. Tony Stewart would probably have lapped the whole field if he did not have mechanical issues.

On The Morning Drive on Sirius this morning, Ricky Rudd noted in an interview that repairing the cars after a little mishap takes longer. He got his nose messed up a bit and he said that what normally would have taken about 2 laps to fix, took about 20 laps to fix. I hope they can resolve the repair time issues because that would mean some folk who might have had a chance even after a wreck, may not even try to bother getting back in. Remember the taped up car Jr drove to victory at a restrictor plate race in recent memory?

We found out via Jeff Hammond that the splitter sticks out just a little too much and can cut down tires when a driver snugs his nose up to his competitors rear quarter panel. (Hmm, I wonder how many flats we're going to see in front of Robby Gordon?)

The safety features must be working. After getting t-boned on the right side, Dale Jarrett felt well enough to get out and let Kenseth know he wasn't happy about being taken out. Let's face it, he finally did not have to use a provisional, and then he gets a tow truck.

We also saw that Jeff Burton IS the man's man. He could have (Should he have?) moved Kyle Busch out of the way to win easily. He had 70 lap fresher tires. Instead, he raced him, making the first COT race a close finish. If Jeff Gordon was behind Busch, Gordon would have won, hands down, because A: he does move people to get the win, B: He's talented enough to be able to do it without wrecking folk. Instead, we were treated to a great finish.

And, despite having the COT out there, familiar faces were up front at the finish.