One of the common traits of the old car was the ability to knock competitors out of the way to gain position. It led to a lot of hurt feelings and flared tempers every so often, but nowadays, we actually have (gasp!) real racing!
And yes, the Hendrick cars seem to be getting it right.
Jimmie Johnson has four wins, Jeff Gordon has two, and Kyle Busch has one. Busch can't stand driving the COT, though, despite his worst finish being seventh in the four races. Whatever happened to winning curing all ills?
Another note discovered from Richmond: The lap times with the COT were a full second slower than average. In the end, it only added about 10 minutes to the total time of the race, a 400-lapper.
The groundswell has started to take the COT to full-time status for 2008. Considering how confused everyone is as to how it's working and when it will run, the sooner, the better.