The COT era in NASCAR was a weird one, not necessarily defined by racing but by everything all put together. It was a short time, only five and a half years in the sport (fewest time for a car generation in NASCAR outside of the still ongoing Next Gen racecar) by a pretty wide margin. It was both aesthetically and in usage a controversial change that defines the end of NASCAR’s most popular era and the start of the downturn that the sport still sees itself in to this very day. So let’s look back at NASCAR’s COT era.
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36 comments
What are your thoughts on the COT era? Favorite races?
Cot was underrated in my opinion
I did not really mind it, I prefer the 2011 and 2012 look
@JGR4LIFEAgreed, I grew up watching the COT and rewatched the few COT races on NASCAR classics and liked the racing I saw, is it just me or was the COT really good.
2010 Talladega races are classics that are never mentioned. It had 88 lead changes in the spring and 87 in the fall.
I find it really weird and funny that the COT was used in the same time span as iCarly
Yo that is true!
Both of yall are weird….. like how Mike & Mike had a morning show on ESPN when fans do something way toooo dumb. We need a banning., 48 hours neither of yall can watch new content from Jared
@Darrell Adams I’m sorry, who are you?
It was a good time to be a kid. I watched many hours of both.
Big time rush too
Those early years of the COT were great. The #48 team making history, Red Bull’s rise, Kyle Busch’s breakout, Keselowski’s first win and the return of Mark Martin. A pretty good era.
The crazy thing about the first part of The COT era was they kinda make the car look like S2000 Touring Cars, especially with front splitter and rear wing.
Nobody mentions that the COT also brought an end to the classic and great NASCAR console games.
The last of them didn’t even make it into the Wii (the only one that did was NASCAR 2011, and it was a half-arsed port of 2005)
Inside Line was released at the end of the COT era and it’s a top 3 game of all-time. It was also the only good game released during the COT era.
I gotta admit, I checked out when they brought in the giant spoilers. I thought they looked stupid and were trying to attract the Fast and Furious crowd so I quit watching for a good amount of years. I only started again after 2020 when it was the only sport on during the pandemic and looking back I missed some pretty decent seasons from that time.
Gotta say in terms of looks the wang COT has to be my 2nd favorite in NASCAR right behind the 2005-2007 gen 4s
If the current NASCAR generation had 900 horsepower, we can have another 2011 season
agreed totaly
I’d settle for 850, like a TA1 car has.
@SkaldLouisCyphre I thought they were 700hp?
@Jon The website claims 850, for what it’s worth.
One thing we can’t complain about in that era was the rage from the Busch brothers especially Kurt on the radio
Kyle got kicked from Hendrick because of it, and used it to his advantage heading to Toyota and JGR, and thus, the villain of NASCAR was born (before Denny Hamlin)
The COT era is when I first started getting into Nascar, with Truex being my favorite driver in the 1. A very nostalgic car and I have a lot of respect for it.
The Truex #1 Bass Pro COT looked cool as hell.
In a lot of ways I miss the COT compared to the Gen6 and 7 cars. 2011 and 2012 COT was the best of the era
Am I the only one who finds it severely underrated? I personally love this era just probably because a lot of the moments that came out of this era like Tony winning the championship in 2011, or the moments with Jimmie and Jeff. Or maybe it’s because of the models, yes I actually like them, despite winged spoilers NOT fitting NASCAR very well, I actually think the models looked pretty good especially more with the 2010-2012 spoilers. And one big reason I like them is because I miss Dodge, the COT era was the last time Dodge was in NASCAR. I will admit 2007-2008 was a pretty bad start for the era, but it got better and I might have bad taste, but I don’t hate it, I can’t bring myself to hate it. I Love the COT Era, change my mind
Same
Funny thing, The wing car was Kevins kryptonite. His last win prior was the Gen4 car (2007 daytona 500) and his next win was the COT spoiler, (not wing) in 2010 Talladega.
I grew up in the COT era (being born in ’04). My first race being the 2010 Emory Healthcare 500. This era will always have a special place in my heart for introducing me to the sport. Putting all of that aside, I can still understand and recognize it’s many flaws.
I grew up with the COT, Speed channel had great coverage in south america making it way more exciting, thank you Tony Rivera for amazing play by play commentary, I was also a Montoya fan because he was the only south american, had to root for him, it’s a shame he never got that oval win, still pissed at that Indy race.. The race was really fun, all the battles and drama felt fantastic, I loved the look of the car but I understand older fans dislike for it. Sadly south american coverage started getting inconsistent after Speed channel died, sometimes we would have no broadcast, so it got harder to follow and then my interest dropped, it’s a shame. Nowadays, coverage is at the worst state so following NASCAR is just really hard from here
The COT with the spoiler instead of the wing is one of the best looking cars in my opinion. Always thought it visually represented what a NASCAR stock car was, a car with tons of horsepower, little grip, and the aerodynamic properties of a brick.
Honestly, I liked the COT car with the wing on it. I was in my early 20’s at that time and liked that car and how it looked. Really wish IRacing would find and scan one of the winged COT cars to have in sim.
I think a lot of what you said about stagnant racing is true from this era. The Car of the Turning problem as I like to call it, definitely made exciting tracks such as my season ticket track, Texas; very boring. I remember passing out for 50 laps one year lol