Heat Inside the COT is Extreme

The heat inside the COT cars is becoming an issue on the track. Drivers like Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers and Denny Hamlin have noted the heat issues and they're hoping that NASCAR steps in to help since, as Jeff Burton put it: NASCAR developed the car without a lot of input from the teams, they should partake in the process and help, but NASCAR says it's on the teams to deal with it.

Jeff Burton's theory is that the front splitter is restricting some of the airflow that they've become used to and I've heard over on SIRIUS that the location of the exhaust pipe under the floor boards also contribute to the scenario.

I agree that NASCAR should step in and help with THEIR design.

But John Darby of NASCAR questions why drivers complain about the issue, but don't use some of the resources that are available to them since there are no rules restricting the application of fresh air control.

I'm thinking performance issues are what teams are worried about and I think NASCAR invalidates part of their opinion when Darby says that Carl Edwards didn't even break a sweat. So they ask the tri-athlete? The guy who bikes between states to go to races? Eesh.

Darby did concede that switching to unleaded fuel might have added 10 to 20 degrees to the interior of the car, and as far as I remember, it was already dang hot in those cars before that!

In 2005, CNN medical reporter Dr. Gupta did a series on NASCAR and what extremes the drivers go through. In that series, he noted that the interior of the car (Back then, in '95) hits around 100 degrees, and 170 degrees at the floorboards. So if we add 10-20 degrees for unleaded fuel, and who knows how much due to the new design - wow.

It's being reported that NASCAR is starting to take readings and what not from different aspects of the drivers and the cars, so more quantitative data is coming everyone's way someday soon.

So for the moment, it's not going to be too bad this weekend in Michigan, but the hot months of July and August inevitably coming at us. Let's see if someone can figure something out without incurring a massive penalty!!

Time will tell.

Sources: USA Today , CNN , SportingNews