After a decades-long hiatus from stock car racing, Chevy's legendary Impala nameplate - enhanced with the SS performance designation - will once again compete in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) in select races of the 2007 NASCAR season. Chevy's Car of Tomorrow entry, slated to make its first run at Bristol in March of 2007, will be an Impala SS and will share the NNCS schedule next season with the current Monte Carlo SS. The Car of Tomorrow will share both the 2007 and 2008 racing seasons with the current race car design until its first full season in 2009. The new car is scheduled to race at sixteen events in 2007, consisting of those at tracks less than a mile and a half in length, the road courses and the second Talladega race. In 2008, all races at tracks two miles or more in length are expected to feature the new design. Chevrolet introduced the Impala in 1957 as a 1958 model (50 years ago next year) and drivers immediately took to the big car, racing it first on the beach at Daytona, then at Daytona International Speedway in 1959. Redesigned that year, Bob Welborn scored a victory with the new model for the qualifying race of the 1959 Daytona 500 - the first 500 at the Speedway. Success continued for Impala with consecutive NASCAR championship titles in 1960 (Rex White) and again in 1961 (Ned Jarrett). In 1963, stock-car legend Junior Johnson ran 32 races of the 55-race schedule in the famous white No. 3 Impala owned by Ray Fox and collected seven wins, 12 top-fives, 13 top-tens and nine poles.(GM Racing PR), images of the 2007 #48 Lowe's Chevy Impala on the 2007 #48 Team Schemes page.(10-27-2006)

Check out a picture of Johnson's 2007 COT on Jayki's link.

I wasn't that impressed when I first saw the COT images, but seeing it with all the paint and sponsorship logos, the car really looks sharp!