It looks like the car of the future will be delayed from the original plan. The goal now is to phase the car in at short tracks and road courses starting in 2007. Then move to 2 mile+ tracks in 2008 and intermediate tracks in 2009. I believe the original plan was to introduce the car at Talladega this fall. There have also been some news updates at the Jayski site:
http://www.jayski.com/teams/car-future.htm
J.D.