NASCAR season begins with Daytona testing

January 4, 2002
2:43 PM EST (1943 GMT)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Testing, 1…2…3. The countdown to the 2002 Daytona 500 has begun.

The 44th running of the 500 is set for Feb. 17 at Daytona International Speedway. That’s six weeks down the road, a seemingly substantial amount of time - unless you’re talking about NASCAR Winston Cup Series competition. Each and every day leading up to the season-opening 500 will be vital, starting with this month’s test sessions on Daytona’s 2.5-mile tri-oval.

Testing opens Monday (Jan. 7), with three days available to those teams that had odd-number finishing positions in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup car owner point standings. From Jan. 14-16, teams that had even-number finishes in the owner points will test. Make-up “rain” dates are Jan. 10 and Jan. 17.

Defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon leads the list of eligible drivers for the first session; 2001 series runner-up Tony Stewart leads the list for the second session.

This year’s testing arrangement has been altered from past years, when sessions were divided by car makes. With the series’ full variety of makes (Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Pontiac) on the track at the same time, the new format could provide early indications of competitive advantages that will affect the 500 - the inevitable preseason “sandbagging” notwithstanding.

“[This] is the way it should be,” said Todd Parrott, team manager for three-time Daytona 500 champion Dale Jarrett. “They’re mixing all the cars up. It’s going to make it fun and different.”

Also, in previous seasons, tests were limited to two days. An extra day is considered invaluable.

“With a three-day test this year, I think we'll be able to learn a whole lot more from our time in Daytona,” said Newt Moore, crew chief for Ken Schrader’s Pontiac team. “It's hard to get a lot of runs [at Daytona testing], so we're glad that NASCAR gave us three days this year."

The additional day is especially welcomed, considering NASCAR’s latest alterations to the NASCAR Winston Cup aerodynamic rules for Daytona competition.

“We’re going to evaluate the new superspeedway aero package. We’ll see what the changes are and hopefully we’ll be a little smarter when it comes to figuring out what to do with them,’’ said Tim Culbertson, Dodge’s NASCAR Winston Cup program engineering manager. “We’ll definitely work some in the draft.

“I think NASCAR has done a real smart thing by having all four makes test at the same time. We’ll see how competitive or uncompetitive we are running with each other. There will be no arguments about the weather or anything else like there used to be in pre-season testing.”

In addition to the NASCAR Winston Cup testing, the NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division has two test sessions slated for January at Daytona. On Jan. 21-22, teams with odd-number finishes in the 2001 owner points will test; on Jan. 24-25, even-number finishers from 2001 are eligible. Rain dates are Jan. 23 and Jan. 26. The NASCAR Busch Series’ 2002 season opens Feb. 16 at Daytona, with the EAS/GNC Live Well 300.

Also slated for January: Goody’s Dash Series, NASCAR Touring tests on Jan. 12-13; and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series tests on Jan. 18-20.

The Goody’s Dash season opens at Daytona on Feb. 9. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck season opens at Daytona on Feb. 15.