'Flying brick' debuts Sunday; 'Car of Tomorrow' finally makes NASCAR premiere.(Sports)

Byline: LIZ CLARKE - Washington Post

Kurt Busch likens his initial impression of NASCAR's radically retooled race car, known as the "Car of Tomorrow," to meeting someone new. The first thing he noticed was its looks. His heart hardly took flight. Instead of the sleek, sloping car he drove to the 2004 NASCAR championship, Busch found himself confronted with a taller, wider shoebox on wheels with a retro-looking wing sprouting from its rear end.

Busch hasn't necessarily warmed up to the car's appearance since. Nor have his peers. Two-time champion Tony Stewart derides it as "a flying brick." But on the eve of its first racing weekend at Tennessee's Bristol Motor Speedway, drivers hope that something akin to its "inner beauty" emerges.

"This car doesn't aesthetically …