Cookie-cutter COT has its boring side, critics say

 Car Mouse The car debuted at 16 races in 2007 after seven years indevelopment. It will be used in all 36 Cup races this year, butwith no previous experience on the MIS two-mile oval, and no testsessions here in the car, the drivers' cache of data is very thin. "We can take a little information from similar tracks, likeCalifornia, but until we get up there to Michigan and run it, we'reall pretty much guessing how the car will react," said MattKenseth, who won Cup races here in 2002 and 2006. "The car and the rules - it lets us do a lot less than we used to.Certainly, it presents a challenge, but everybody is in the sameboat." Greg Biffle, who has two Cup wins and two Craftsman Truck Serieswins at MIS, said it's tough to predict how the COT will run here. "It's kind of weird, but with this car, some places you can reallytell a big difference in it, between the old car and the new car,"he said. "The old car did some things that this one won't. But really, it'snot a distinct difference, I don't think, between the old car andthe new car. We're faced with the same exact things as we were withthe old car: getting the car to turn, trying to keep it on thebottom, and trying to keep the nose down." Kasey Kahne, the hottest driver on the circuit right now afterwinning twice in the past three weeks, said the COT was sold on itssafety credentials. "They've always said it's safer, and that's good if you're adriver," Kahne said. "The other stuff, I don't know. I just thinkit takes time. Hopefully as we get to keep working with this car,we'll get it to where it's better to race, you know, and racearound other cars. But it's just been difficult." Biffle laments the fact the COT has not enhanced the final product- the racing. "It's created less passing, and people have complained about theraces being boring, there's not as much side by side," he said."Now all of our cars are so close together, they're so similar,that we're so equal, that's what makes it hard to pass.