This weekend the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series will visit the Phoenix International Raceway and race the Car of Tomorrow for the final time in 2007. In next week’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway teams will go back to the current car for one last time.

Opinions and feelings over this change have been quite vocal and many still feel changes are in order. However, NASCAR is set in its ways and claim there are no current plans to alter the design of the car.

When NASCAR made the announcement that the series would be shifting to the COT full time in 2008, many in the garage, the media and the grandstands felt troubled. Most fans described the car as ugly and nothing like a stock car, drivers and crews have complained to NASCAR they are in a box when it comes to making changes and many in the media have questioned the promise of better racing (take for example Talladega’s single-file parade for twenty-plus laps).

This sentiment has been felt ever since the car first took the track. Think back to the COT’s debut at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race came down to a great battle between Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton, with Busch taking the advantage and writing his name in the history books as the first driver to win in a COT. Yet when Busch got out of the car in Victory Lane, one of the first things he bemoaned was how much he hated this car and how it, “still sucked.”

As the season went on, teams continued to learn more and more about the car and what they could and could not change. Hendrick Motorsports definitely had the early advantage, winning the first five COT events. Extensive testing and seemingly endless funding propelled the team to the top of the series and ahead of the competition. Other teams were quick to adapt and eventually broke the HMS streak.

The teams learned quickly NASCAR was not kidding when they told them not to mess with the design of the COT. Harsh penalties were handed out to Dale Earnhardt Inc. at Darlington and Hendrick Motorsports at Infineon for altering components on the car. The teams were docked 100 drivers’ points, 100 owners’ points, as well as fined $100,000; and crew chiefs Tony Eury Jr., Steve Letarte and Chad Knaus were suspended for up to six races. The message was clear, this is the car NASCAR gives you, and this is the car that needs to go through inspection.

Teams have continued to struggle with this, complaining they can’t make the car handle properly with the restrictions placed on them. The off-season will provide teams the time and opportunity to test this car more and find other ways around their issues.

With the current car going the way of the dodo, teams no longer have to focus on building two different cars while trying to win races. Their focus can become more specific and perhaps the real difference will be seen next year.

Much has changed in NASCAR’s top series this season and there are still more changes to come. With the current car being phased out, the Car of Tomorrow becomes the Car of Today. The torch has been passed and there is no looking back. Change has never come easy, and this is no different, yet teams will continue to adjust, continue to bend the rules and continue to battle it out on the racetrack. So this weekend at Phoenix, remember that it is no longer the Car of Tomorrow, but the “Promise of Today”.