Preseason testing only an appetizer to NASCAR season

Baseball fans count the days until pitchers and catchers report. NFL fans have Organized Team Activities (aka OTAs) and preseason camps, while college football fans soak up spring football.

NASCAR fans are pretty much left to sit and twiddle their thumbs from the end of the season in late November until cars finally hit the track to begin Speedweeks in Daytona in early February. Minus the occasional test at a non-NASCAR sanctioned track (due to NASCAR’s new testing rules instituted in 2008), NASCAR fans rarely get to see their favorite drivers turning laps.

This year, though, NASCAR and Goodyear decided to let teams test the new pavement at the “Birthplace of NASCAR,” and the result was nothing short of an appetizer for the main course that will come in a few weeks.

For NASCAR fans across the country, some respite was provided from snowy and dreary winter weather in the form of 30-plus teams hitting the 2.5-tri-oval in Florida. SPEED TV and SPEED Channel’s website covered the testing which began last Thursday, and ended on Saturday.

It was a brief showing of what is to come when cars and teams officially report to Daytona in early February. Sprint Cup teams will first hit the track for Budweiser Shootout practice on Friday the 11th of February according to Daytona International Speedway’s website.

Although full-scale drafting didn’t occur during the test sessions last week, two-car drafts broke away at speeds nearing 200 mph. Brad Keselowski and his Penske teammate Kurt Busch both cracked the 198 mph barrier on Saturday.

“I think it's more the two drivers working together to make it go fast,” Busch said. “There are different combinations of tape on the grill and you have to be good on your exchange when you’re going back and forth on who’s going to push and who’s going to lead—so it’s almost like you’re going to have to learn how to dance with everybody out there to make it work, if you want to be up front.”

Keselowski, the 2010 Nationwide (nee Busch) Series champion feels that the big packs fans have grown accustomed to seeing at restrictor plate tracks like Daytona and Talladega, might be on their way out the door.

“As the weekend progressed it became more and more obvious that the thought of having a big pack—we might be seeing the extinction of that here,” Keselowski said. “It won’t be at the front—how about that?”

Goodyear and NASCAR mandated that teams draft during a mid-December tire test at Daytona to check wear on the tires from the new surface. Busch said with this most recent test was different.

“Now we’re here on our own, with no rules and NASCAR hasn’t stepped in about the bump-drafting—and two cars are going to be faster than any other combination out there,” the 2004 Sprint Cup champion said.

So, what does that mean for the race? NASCAR’s managing director of competition John Darby told the media members gathered in Daytona, “It’s a neat tool. As you watch the race, it’s not something that you’ll see [regularly]. I doubt we’ll see pairs of cars from green flag to checkered flag, but as the race winds down to that final 20 miles it’ll be time to find your partner and see who you’re going to work with to get to the front.”

As the popular saying goes, “Dance with the one that brung you.” We’ll see who’s dancing with whom when the last few laps break out at Daytona in 27 days. From everything we’ve seen during the test last week, it sounds like a two-car pair will be fighting another two-car duo for the right to be called Daytona 500 champion.

But in the time from now until the checkers fall, anything could happen. Unfortunately NASCAR fans have to wait a few more weeks until they get to see cars on the track again. Until then the only things they have to turn to are old videos, replays of races and, of course, these blog posts.
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Check back tomorrow for more NASCAR coverage as we all get one day closer to the Daytona 500.

Also, if you’re a fan of high school sports in the Cincinnati area (particularly of one of the four GCL South schools), check my blog for one of my classes this academic quarter, called “The GCL South Experience.” Visit: http://gclsouthexperience.wordpress.com/

Leave a comment on any story you’d like and I’ll use your comments to write stories. Have a good Monday everyone!