The New Year has begun and so has the start of the pre-season testing schedule for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. NASCAR's version of spring training, Pre-Season Thunder at Daytona International Speedway, featured non-stop testing from January 9th through January 21st with all three of its top touring series participating in three days of testing.
The first week of pre-season testing started at Daytona International Speedway on January 9th with Nextel Cup cars that were ranked in even number positions following the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July 2005. Both Robert Yates Racing (RYR) teams with drivers Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler were in even point positions following that event. Wanting to gain the most information possible and to have access to two weeks of testing, RYR made arrangements for the #88 UPS Racing Team to swap test dates with the #17 Roush Racing Ford Team in order to attend the second week of testing.
After three days of testing for Craftsman Truck Series teams, the second round of Nextel Cup testing started on January 16th. More than 25 teams participated in the three-day test session that featured qualifying tests as well as drafting practices.
While the new season features a number of changes, including the testing policy, it offers even bigger question marks for Ford teams, as Daytona Testing marked the first official test for teams racing the all new Ford Fusion. While NASCAR templates tend to make minimal the nuances of the Fusion, Jarrett said that the Fusion seems to be a better product for Ford teams.
"I think it's a combination of things that makes the Fusion better for us," Jarrett said. "The changes that were made for this Fusion have made this a better balanced race car for us. We might not have to try to trick the car as much as what we had to with the Taurus at times. Obviously, a lot of guys figured that out a lot of different times, but the Fusion should make our jobs much easier in that respect."
In preparations for the Daytona test, the team resolved to develop a race car that handled well, due to Daytona being much more of a handling track than its sister track, Talladega Superspeedway. "We made some chassis changes with one of our cars to hopefully get a piece that would really drive much better than what we've had the last three or four times we've been to Daytona," Jarrett explained. "This has become such a handling race track. Like I told the guys over the winter, 'I'm willing to give up some speed, if we can get something that I know come Sunday afternoon in the Daytona 500 will handle well.' While the other guys may have to feather the gas a little bit in different parts of the corner, if I can stay wide open, then that's what I'm after."
The first two days of testing were dedicated to qualifying and the search for speed. On Tuesday afternoon, the final qualifying test session, one of the two cars in which Jarrett practiced was fourth on the speed chart, with a time of 48.246 seconds and 186.544 mph. While that time was a little more than four-tenths of a second slower than his 2005 Daytona 500 pole-winning speed of 47.793 seconds and 188.312 mph, the UPS Ford appeared to draft well during the drafting sessions that took place on Wednesday. In the end, Jarrett said the UPS Team's goal is to bring home the big trophy - the Daytona 500 prize.
"When you look at it we've had kind of a dry spell as far as running well here," Jarrett said of RYR's effort at Daytona. "We've won some poles and things, but that's not really what we're after. We're after trophies, but that's the wrong trophy. I believe that the change to the Fusion will allow the Fords to get themselves in a position to be more of a factor in the Daytona 500 this year. I think that I'm correct in saying that a Ford hasn't won the Daytona 500 since we did that in 2000, and I think if you look back you probably haven't seen many laps led by a Ford during that time."
"With the work we've done this winter to improve our handling package and the new Fusion, I'm excited about our prospects for this year's 500," he added.
