James Buescher, driver of the #99 Rheem Toyota, and Kyle Larson, driver of the #32 Turner Motorsports Chevrolet, lead a pack of cars during NASCAR Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway on January 11, 2014
Photo – Getty Images
New year; New faces; New sponsors; New rules.
All that and more, make the Nationwide Series Preseason Thunder test a major success this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. Twenty-five cars turned laps on the 2.5 mile high banks Saturday and Sunday, as teams tune up for the season-opening Drive4COPD 300 on Feb 22 at 1:15pm, broadcast on ESPN, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
Teams adjusted to a new cooling system designed to end tandem drafting while searching for new ways to find top speed at the World Center of Racing.
“With this form of racing you’re going to have to be more strategic throughout the whole race,” said Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner who’s competing for the 2014 Nationwide Series championship. “I don’t think you can wait until five laps to go and hook up to somebody and go barreling to the front.”
By all indications from testing, 22-year-old Bayne may have some tough competition from a pair of 18-year-olds during Speedweeks. On Sunday morning, Dylan Kwasniewski tested a Turner Scott entry and posted the fastest speed of the weekend at 190.022-mph. That coming on the heels of Saturday afternoon’s session, with 18-year-old Chase Elliott besting his father Bill by four one-thousandths of a second to top the speed charts in a JR Motorsports entry. Both Chase Elliott and Kwasniewski are members of NASCAR’s Next program and Bill Elliott is likely a future member of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame.
“It was good to see everybody get out there and get right to drafting,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice-president of competition and racing development. “I’m really pleased with the test. Our conversations that we’ve had with the drivers have been positive and Wayne (Auton, NASCAR Nationwide Series managing director) is getting good feedback from the garage. It looks like a good effort on everybody’s part to do all the right things out there. It looked really nice.”
Chase Elliott (189.950), James Buescher (189.921), Bill Elliott (189.885) and Brendan Gaughan (189.881) followed Kwasniewski on the speed chart in the Sunday morning session – the fastest of the weekend.
Drivers maximized their drafting opportunities on both days as they ran in packs at high speeds gathering key data they plan to use during Speedweeks. Teams also tested a new rear spring package and 4.5-inch spoiler, designed to give cars more stability in the pack. Feedback from testing is under review to help NASCAR make tweaks heading into next month’s action.
Yet-to-be-announced is a new multi-car qualifying format for both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series. That announcement, among others are expected throughout the rest of January.
NASCAR’s Preseason Thunder continues Monday and Tuesday when the Camping World Truck Series teams turn their first laps in redesigned trucks. Testing both days will begin at 9 am and close at 5 pm ET.