NASCAR Nationwide owners resist change to new car

By Joe Dunn

NASCAR officials met Tuesday morning with the team owners from the NASCAR Nationwide Series to set the final date and plans to implement the COT for 2010. Reports from the meeting indicated that many of the smaller team owners were adamantly opposed to the change and the idea of having to buy or build cars for a handful of races. Some owners have reported back to their teams that use the new car will likely not occur until the July race at Daytona. NASCAR had wanted to use the new car for the February race at Daytona, but too many owners opposed that idea.

NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton, after the meeting released the following Statement., “"We had a very productive meeting this morning (Tuesday, July 28) with the team owners from the NASCAR Nationwide Series about the rollout schedule for that series’ new race car. In the days ahead, we will digest what was discussed today and make a final decision on the rollout for next season with full anticipation of integrating the new car for the entire 2011 schedule."

The idea of this new car has been on the drawing board since the introduction of the COT in the Sprint Cup Series, but few of the NNS only teams have invested in the program. Johnny Davis, who runs three teams in the NNS, the 0, 01 and 04 teams is one owner who has been working on this new car and supports the change. Davis and Morgan Shepherd have been working for over a year on building a few of these cars, but they are in the minority.

Nascar was meeting Tuesday afternoon with the series crew chiefs.