While the big theme was the beginning of the last test of the new body types before the 55th edition of the Daytona 500 there was plenty of news of all types in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
The trio of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas led the speed charts in the afternoon session of the test which saw 34-cars take the 2.5 mile oval. Denny Hamlin (at 195.712mph) who drafted with new teammate, Matt Kenseth (at 195.389mph) and Kyle Busch was just a tick off at 195.312mph.
At the end of the session Mark Martin, who was fourth fastest in another Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing when all four Toyotas ran in a small pack.
Because of many factors, including but not limited to a dearth of spare parts for the Gen-6 new look cars, most of the drivers chose not to draft either in tandems or the big packs which made Daytona famous.
With a 500lb reduction in downforce for Daytona and Talladega the cars are supposed to be harder to drive. The cars also feature a rear spoiler that is 4 inches-by-53 inches compared to 3.5 inches-by-62 inches last year. Also to offset some of the weight gains due to the redesign of the car teams are allowed to incorporate carbon fiber into rear deck lids of the cars.
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| Photo: NASCAR |
One of the previous Car of Tomorrow or Gen-5 car haters was triple-champion, Tony Stewart, who was very happy with the new car. “I'm glad we finally got away from the Car of Tomorrow that wasn't, I don't think, one of the best of ideas,” Stewart said. “... It is nice to get back to cars that look like production cars again.”
Still it's early days “there's a lot of work for the cars in general,” added said 2012 champion Brad Keselowski.
Hamlin left Daytona due be with the expectant mother of their first child.
In other news the simmering feud between Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer remains unsettled. The feud came to a boil at the penultimate race in Phoenix when the four-time champion intentionally wrecked Bowyer.
Coincidentally over the New Year's break they were on the same yacht owned by Hip Hop star Sean “P. Diddy” Holmes but didn't speak to each other.
“I was on the damndest boat you've ever seen in your life” Bowyer said during testing Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. “I think he (Gordon) was on that same boat. There was a big time being had. Yes, he was on there and I think it was on the same island.
“I'm pretty sure he was on there. It was pretty late, put it that way.”
But Bowyer was still angry even to talk about his feud when he added "yeah, we held hands and walked on the boat, discussed the past year and enjoyed ourselves throughout the whole vacation," Bowyer said sarcastically. "That was the one person that I definitely wanted to vacation with. Yes. I could not wait to get there for that very reason. Is that what you wanted me to say?"
Robin Pemberton, the NASCAR vice president of competition was satisfied with the first day.
“We've had some good tests this summer. Now we're in the final stages and letting the guys go to work today looked pretty good for what it was,” he said.
One of the mechanical changes seemed effective “we've been working on that for a year now, softening springs where the car will run faster by itself.
What we've learned is that we need to give (teams) them as much as they can to work with; it's not a new chassis. When we get to Charlotte next week we'll see the downforce come back and they'll hustle them around the track because the package is quite different (than Daytona).
But most, including driver Kasey Kahne who tweeted, want to see more cars draft.
Pemberton thought they will “we anticipate that they will want to run (draft) later in the day. I think it will benefit everybody to get some drafting.”
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