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It was dubbed "The Flying Brick" by Tony Stewart, but it's been gliding along for more than three seasons.
The Car of Tomorrow was in part a result of the investigation into the crash that killed Dale Earnhardt in 2001, and it made it's debut in the spring of 2007.
More than anything, Earnhardt's crash changed NASCAR and how it viewed safety. It revealed flaws in the design of the car and exposed weak points that could be bolstered to make the car much more secure.
The redesigned car had a number of innovations designed to increase survivability in an accident.
The driver was moved inboard from the door behind a layer of energy absorbing foam and the greenhouse area from the bottom of the side windows to the roof was expanded creating more headroom for the driver.
The chassis was designed with crush zones and the drive shaft was placed inside a protective sleeve to keep it with the car should the shaft mounts fail.
That's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of safety innovations, and the car also changed the sport from a competitive standpoint.
The conventional nose was traded for a splitter, designed to utilize air from underneath the car in front of it to provide more front downforce and eliminate the dreaded aero-push.
A wing with sideplates replaced the conventional blade spoiler on the deck lid to get air under the wing and to the trailing car's nose and cowl.
The inspection process for the car is much more exacting than with the old car, making each team operate essentially within a common body template.
That template is the same from race to race, which was intended to cut the cost of construction of the car since the same car could be used anywhere without the body modifications that became part of the aerodynamic arms race during the years of the "twisted sister" car.
The teams could decrease the number of cars in their fleet, since they became interchangeable.
Since the body of the car has been minimized as a place to seek an advantage, teams have looked elsewhere to find an edge.