The future is closer than you think.(NASCAR)

It's not a matter of whether the Car of Tomorrow will race; it's a matter of when.

For teams that have dragged their feet waiting to see when the COT would become a reality, time is running out to start building the submission car, which is due in NASCAR's hands by July 1.

That's five months away, and NASCAR won't waver on the due date.

The first COTs will roll into Nextel Cup competition for the first time in 2007 at Bristol Motor Speedway. They will be run at all tracks shorter than a mile and a half, at road courses and at the Talladega restrictor-plate finale. In 2008, all tracks of 2 miles and longer will be added to the list. In 2009, the COT will be the only legal racecar in Cup.

NASCAR hopes a gradual change over three years will spread out the costs. Regardless, the obsolescence of the current models will cost teams millions of dollars.

Felix Sabates, a 20-year owner in the NASCAR wars, calls the program "a bunch of crap." He's not in the minority. Owners at Daytona testing and on the NASCAR media tour--especially those who have developed winning formulas, such as Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick--don't have much praise for the COT.

Still, they're doing their best to comply; Hendrick Motorsports has four full-time employees working exclusively on the project. But the process of going from the original draft of the COT to on-track testing over the past year has thrown so many different structural proposals at the teams that it has been difficult for them to keep up. That's why most teams have built the cars begrudgingly--if at all.