“Our goal was to hand the car off to the teams better than the one that they ended the 2012 season with. We feel like we achieved that goal; we feel like the cars performed well, the drivers like the way the car drives. From that standpoint, it was a successful year. & We will always continue to evaluate our competition and this is one of those programs that's coming together." said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition.
How do we know, Pemberton? Early on the drivers made comments NASCAR didn’t like. Such as:
"I don't want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our Generation 5 cars [a.k.a. "Car of Tomorrow"].This is more like what the Generation 5 was at the beginning. The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you. You would have placed me in 20th-place with 30 (laps) to go, I would have stayed there — I wouldn't have moved up. It's just one of those things where track position is everything." – Denny Hamlin. Fined $25,000.00.
The same message in softer words has been heard from many others all season in pre and post race interviews. Nothing has changed.
NASCAR wouldn’t lie though. Each debris caution is legit, right? But what would one expect from an organization accepting thirteen year olds for their “fan council.”