The first sign that race season is about to begin is when the NASCAR teams show up at Daytona in January for testing.
Most of the work for this test started the first of December. With 2008 being the first full season of the Car of Tomorrow, the teams can settle in on the one-car design and perfect all the systems — aerodynamically and mechanically.
There are going to be many differences in regard to testing with the CoT. Before the CoT, most of the cars tested in primer. That was because every team was putting the aero tune on the bodywork. The metal men were always busy trying filler panels and beating out tire clearance in the fenders. After the Daytona test, it was off to the wind tunnel for final verification, then to the paint shop.

With the CoT body rules being so tight, teams are exploring other areas of the car for performance gains.

With the CoT, the body templates pretty much make the body work a spec part. There is very little room to work. Consequently there will be cars at the test that may still have paint from last year. NASCAR has all but eliminated the areas on the body that can be adjusted.
With that in mind, there are still other areas to be optimized. The underbodies still have areas to work on and there are gains to be made there. Fuel-cell placement is regulated, but there are many other areas that can be “massaged” aerodynamically. The underbody work is one reason most teams have a scale-model wind-tunnel program. Scale-model tunnels have a rolling road, which replicates more accurately what the car sees on the track and allows development in the underbody areas.
The front splitter and radiator air inlet are much different than the CoY (Car of Yesterday) and have created a lot of development in radiators and oil coolers. This development is ongoing and will take all season to perfect. The front splitter and rear wing combination is still new enough to the teams that it will take awhile for the engineers and crew chiefs to grasp the effects they have on aero and handling.
Bump rubbers can now be used on the shocks. They act like a secondary spring when the wheel travel allows the car to get down on the race track. These bump rubbers are springs and there’s an infinite range of rates. At a superspeedway, the car will ride on the bump rubbers so you can imagine the importance of getting this right.
With the CoT body rules being so tight, teams are exploring other areas of the car for performance gains. Searching for parasitic losses in the drive train is one area receiving a lot of attention. Basically, if you can’t reduce drag on the bodywork, start working on the other areas that may give you a return on drag reduction. The transmission, drive shaft, rear end, rear axles, seals, lubricants and bearings comprise many areas that have mechanical drag.
The new ARC drive train dyno in Mooresville, N.C., is a piece of test equipment that allows engineers to develop these areas and monitor the changes with a high degree of accuracy. It’s drag horsepower and very important to performance on a restrictor-plate track.
These are just a few areas crew chiefs and engineers will be working on at Daytona. The teams that spend the most attention on the details are the teams that are fast. The tighter the rulebook, more time and money has to be spent finding gains in new areas. This is very interesting and part of the reason NASCAR racing is so popular.