Car of Tomorrow brings boredom to NASCAR

By this time next week, when I get another chance to figure out NASCAR's unspectacular Chase for the Cup and avoid writing about how much of a Jimmie Johnson runaway it's been, we will have a new president-elect of this great nation. So I want to take the time to talk about an important issue -- change.Of course, I wouldn't dare address the political landscape or what's in store for us from either side of the aisle. The change I'm talking about has to do with NASCAR and the vehicle that's been circling the track the whole year in its first full season.The Car of Tomorrow -- or Car of Today or current car or whatever you want to call it -- has received major criticism from the first time it pulled in to Victory Lane. That happened in March last year at Bristol when Kyle Busch collected his only win of 2007, then, rather coarsely, proclaimed how bad the new car really was.At first glance, it appeared to be typical Kyle. But you know what, looks like he was right.The latest critic was Dale Jarrett during the Atlanta race Sunday. Sitting in the broadcast booth, the 1999 champion watched the slipping and sliding and stated that NASCAR -- which has no plans to tweak the car in the offseason -- should address the car and the problems drivers are having with it.In March, the complaint about Atlanta centered on the tire compound Goodyear brought, as tires were popping like flash bulbs at the Oscars. That was bad and dangerous for drivers. Last Sunday, Goodyear's chance to settle the score, was just bad racing, safe, but bad.Perhaps the problem here isn't Goodyear. This taller car has a history of dull racing at aero tracks: Get out in front in clean air and you'll pull away to win; trail the leader and you bog down and can't pass. The only passing in the last 10 laps Sunday was by the group of drivers, including Johnson, who chose to take on new rubber.Drivers were sawing on the steering wheel so much that you couldn't tell if they were driving the cars or the ill-handling cars were driving them. It wasn't steering as much as it was hanging on for dear life and hoping to make it to the end.In fact, the only tracks where the higher-speed racing's any good at is Daytona and Talladega, where anything can and usually does happen in those packs. Drivers can pass, though, probably because nothing has been analyzed more over the last 20 years than restrictor-plate racing.NASCAR's best shouldn't be riding around at much less than full throttle at these aero tracks, afraid of the car getting out from under them because it's so ornery to control. That notion flies in the face of what racing is all about.Change isn't always necessarily good or bad. The one thing change does guarantee, though, is something different.And NASCAR's current car needs a little difference in it.(Bill Whitehead covers NASCAR for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. E-mail him at wwhitehe@ircc.net.)