NASCAR Teams Complete Preseason Thunder Test At Daytona

Now that NASCAR has completed three days of testing, changing valve pressures, restrictor plates, grille openings, and generally fiddling with every piece of the Sprint Cup cars on the Daytona International Speedway oval, what can we expect once Speedweeks begin in early February?

"I think we'll see a considerable difference from what we had at Daytona last year, when the guys got the two-car tandem really refined," said Travis Geisler, Penske Racing competition director. "We're drastically limited on how long you can push; you'll still see two-car tandem racing. I'd be surprised if you don't see--at some point in the race--that drivers will hook up for a lap or so and try to gain some speed. But it won't be the story that dominates the race like it has in the past."

Geisler said the change to electronic fuel injection coming at the Daytona 500 was not much of an issue. "Just like anything, you have your learning curve and we're working through it. We've learned a bunch of things about EFI; I think we're okay where we are with it. Any time there is a big rule change, the biggest margins for gains are right at the beginning. Once you get past that, everybody has refined it so far that the gains become small."

NASCAR and the Sprint Cup teams likely gathered many gigabites of data and information as speeds continued to stay around the 200-mph marker. Kasey Kahne led the morning session (201.545 mph) and four-time champion teammate Jeff Gordon racked up the afternoon's top speed at 200.562 during a pack drafting session.

"We've had a good test and gained a lot of information," Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition said. "We know that when we come ou of here, there will be some loose ends we have to tie up as we get all our information together, and come up with our final plans for Speedweeks. I can say that, all in all, everything is going according to plan."

Penske Racing teammates AJ Allmendinger and Brad Keselowski were second and third, respectively in the final practice session after Gordon, as Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano Martin Truex Jr, Clint Bower, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top 10. There were a total of 26 cars on the track during the final test session - notably, not one Ford in the top 10.

"AJ and I were able to log a lot of laps today," said Keselowski, "and I feel good about our package for the 500. It's getting harder to perform the two-car draft so maybe we'll see some pack racing when we come back. I had a blast running in the pack today."

2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion crew chief Darian Grubb, now working with Denny Hamlin's Toyota Camry at Joe Gibbs Racing was very complimentary about NASCAR's procedures during the three-day test. "They're definitely thinking ahead and doing a lot of research and development back at their shop.  coming here with a pre-planned effort with some of the changes and things theta they've already done here has been a real positive.

"They've got the data being collected and have a good idea of what they want to do and what they want to accomplish," Grubb continued. "As they filter that out to us, we go out and hit the race track with it and see how that changes our cars."

Teams collaborated with NASCAR officials throughout the day, in particular during the afternoon pack drafting session, to work towards the goal of reducing the ease of the tandem draft and making it an exception instead of the norm.  

"Once we leave here, there will be a lot of energy spent on looking through all of the data we've collected this week," John Darby, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director remarked.  "We'll be looking through lap times and speeds and watching film and footage. I would like to have the final rules package out as quickly as we can, just to make sure the teams have enough time to react to everything."