January 16, 2007 - The 2007 NASCAR test schedule kicked off at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) with the first round of testing for teams competing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Teams that participated in the first of two scheduled sessions spent more than three days at the 2.5-mile superspeedway preparing for the season-opening Daytona 500, which will take place in a little more than five weeks.UPS Behind the Scenes

The session was originally scheduled to run January 8-11, but rain showers during the first day of testing canceled the afternoon portion of the test and prompted NASCAR officials to extend the session through Thursday, January 12.

For Dale Jarrett and the #44 UPS Toyota Team, it was their first time at a race track together and the end result was the team being the fastest Toyota by the week's end. Jarrett turned his fastest lap during Wednesday afternoon's drafting practice with a time of 48.253 seconds and 186.517 mph.

"That was nice," Jarrett said of the distinction. "You know that was in drafting and you can kind of make that number what you want but that just shows that the car is capable of running fast in the draft and we were pleased."

The test at Daytona was also Jarrett's first time sitting behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry - the first time in 12 years he's sat behind the wheel of a manufacturer other than Ford. Coming into the week, Jarrett said he had put some thought into the moment he would strap into the #44 UPS Toyota Camry.

"I told myself that it's just a race car," Jarrett explained. "There are some things that some makes of cars do better with the differences in the noses and everything, but the way the sport is today, there isn't a lot of variation between the cars, with all of the NASCAR specifications and templates. But each car has its differences when it comes to the attitude of the car and what it needs to drive well."

"The car drove well and I'm encouraged by that," Jarrett said. "You know I've come down here before with cars that didn't drive as well as the cars this week and have come back and won races."

Jarrett is the only driver of the three racing for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) in 2007 that is guaranteed a starting spot in the Daytona 500 as a result of being the 1999 NASCAR Cup Series champion. He's also the most recent champ who would possibly have to use the past champion's provisional. As a result, he was in a position to work on a variety of setups for the race car that would hope to serve as a benefit for MWR as a whole.

"We are in a position to look at things different and we need to be able to help Michael (Waltrip) and David (Reutimann) because they're going to need a good qualifying lap to make sure they can be in the 500 in the event something happens in one of the Dual races," he explained. "I worked with three different cars that varied between down force and drag. So, we're kind of having to do a balancing act to see what we can do to gain the speed yet then what changes we can make that are going to be beneficial to us in the race in regards to down force without hurting the speed too much."

The test session consisted of a handful of practices in which teams drafted and another set of sessions where teams only made single-car laps, which led to long waits to get on the track. While Team UPS was not the fastest overall, Jarrett said the test turned out well for the first-year team.

"We were happy with what we saw and we probably exceeded some of our expectations," Jarrett said. "I mean we got a lot of work accomplished and these guys did a terrific job, especially their first test working together. By ourselves, yeah, we probably need a little bit more speed but we have time to continue to work on that and I know that Toyota is continuing to work in the engine side of it, so hopefully when we come back we'll be ready to race. We were very pleased with everything we saw."