For the first time in 2013, the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hit the pavement for an all-day test at the Daytona International Speedway.
Thursday was the first of three full long days of testing under the warm humid Florida sun. The testing allows teams to work out the kinks and fiddle with some new tweaks before Daytona Speedweeks officially kicks off on February 16 with the Sprint Unlimited Shootout.
With this being the first glimpse of NASCAR in the new year, here are a few things we learned from Thursday’s testing session.
1. Appealing Cars
For the first time in 2013, we witnessed NASCAR race cars that, in fact, look similar to cars you could go to your local dealer and purchase. Unlike the recent past, where we saw cars that all looked identical and had no manufacturer distinction whatsoever other than a sponsor logo sticker, we actually can now look at a car and distinguish what manufacture it is. This is really great for all fans, but it will more than likely benefit the more novice fans as we try to continue to welcome new fans to the fan base of this great sport.
2. Small Added Features Make A Big Difference
A new edition to the Sixth Generation race cars is a sticker of the driver’s last name on the top of the windshield. A little thing like the name on a windshield doesn’t seem like much of anything on paper, but it’s going to make a lot easier for spectators to distinguish who’s piloting these 800 horsepower racing machines considering the amount of different paint schemes and different sponsor arrangements one race team will roll out of the race shop over the course of NASCAR’s lengthy season. This change will be great for fans and again will help the novice fans adapt to the drivers.
3. Fast Cars
Once the cars hit the track, and the lap times came rolling in you could see just how fast these cars are. Teams were exceeding 190 mph while running alone with no drafting playing into the equation. Matt Kenseth was quickest in the morning testing session on Thursday as he rolled out a lap of 192.757 mph, on the opposite side of the lap sheet was Levine Family Racing’s Scott Speed who posted a lap at 186.990 mph. As the teams are allowed more time on the race track, these speeds are only going to get faster.
4. Two-Car Tandem Looks Different
The morning testing session consisted of teams making single qualifying type runs, but after a one-hour lunch break, testing was quickly back underway at the Daytona International Speedway, and in the afternoon session, we saw the first glimpse of drafting. Twenty minutes into the afternoon session we saw new teammates Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin attempt to get a two-car draft started, but both cars looked fidgety and the cars really couldn’t sustain one full lap sandwiched together. With these new Generation 6 cars, the two-car tandem drafting will be tougher because these bumpers are more curved, thus easier to spin the other car out when drafting. The difficulty of the two-car draft will likely benefit the overall racing and get it back to the pack-style racing we come to expect from these big superspeedway tracks.
