Hendrick still against COT
Had he, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports would have tried harder to convince the governing body to improve the current car instead of constructing a new one.
"I made a huge mistake by not trying to lobby a little bit earlier, I guess," Hendrick said during Monday's COT test at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "I've always been against it, and I haven't changed.
"What we had put on a really good race [Sunday]. We could have modified the car we had if we didn't have any safety problems."
Monday's test was the first step toward implementing the COT into mile-and-a-half tracks next season. Although the cars have gotten decent reviews on short tracks — 1.366 miles at Darlington and under — and the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway, Hendrick believes the 1.5-mile tracks will create a different set of problems.
"I don't think we're through with the Car of Tomorrow," he said. "When they put them all out here together they're going to have to do a lot of changes and a lot of body work, and a lot of aero work is going to have to go on.
"I don't think you're going to be able to run these things stock like we're looking at right now." More at ESPN.com