Just picked up the Sports Illustrated Collector's Issue the other day...they predict that Tony Stewart will be the '07 Nextel Cup Champion and that Juan Montoya will probably win at least one race, probably one of the road courses. i can see Tony winning the Cup again, but I think Montoya will have his work cut out for him next year; he has to learn how to drive the contemporary car and the Car Of Tomorrow at the same time.
If anybody can adjust quickly to NASCAR, it'll be Juan, but I think he'll struggle for the first year...he may not even be Rookie-Of-The -Year. And that so-called Car Of Tomorrow; well...I just don't see it being much of a cure-all for the issues NASCAR hopes it'll address. It will be slower, with more downforce, but the teams with the most resources will find the little tweaks that will elude the smaller teams.
The Toyotas are supposedly competetive right out of the box, if reports from an open test session at Michigan International Speedway are accurate; but SI's prediction that a Toyota team will challenge for the chase is a bit of a tall order, IMO.
These are my observations...what do the rest of you guys think?
Dan