Testing opens at DIS

13.5 gallon fuel cell in place for Daytona 500, says Darby

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR's winter testing schedule at Daytona International Speedway -- for the first time more organized and dubbed "Preseason Thunder" -- opened Tuesday morning.

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Twenty-five teams took to the 2.5-mile high-banked race track at about 9:15 a.m. for their first taste of 2003's "common template race cars" -- NASCAR's attempt at equalizing the potential performance of the four makes competing in the Winston Cup Series.

All Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Dodges and Fords will have the same 1.5-inch nose "kickout," or the extension of the front air dam below the bumper.

All four makes, which have to mount their bodies on the same reference point, will also use the identical rear spoiler package -- 6.25 inches high by 57 inches wide at a 55-degree angle.

A year ago, NASCAR made no less than four "performance adjustments" to its rules from January testing through the end of Speedweeks. Winston Cup director John Darby said he expects nothing of the kind this season.

	John Darby

"One thing that will be totally different is that essentially all the makes are new," Darby said, "because of the body location rule and template changes, the cars that we saw at Speedweeks 2002 we won't see in 2003 -- none of them.

"Whenever a wholesale change in the cars takes place it will take some time for the teams to get their equipment sorted out."

Chevrolet and Pontiac have totally new models for 2003, while the Ford Taurus has a new tail and nosepiece. Dodge, with the exception of the common templates and mounting point is the same car as in 2002.

"We fully expect the Dodge and Ford camps to be at the point where they are fully realizing their cars' potential a little sooner," Darby said. "Because the basic shapes of the cars are the same, whereas cars are completely new."

One of the more critical elements teams will face at Daytona is a repeat of the downsized fuel cells the teams used for the first time last fall at Talladega Superspeedway.

Darby said the cells would be "about 13.5 gallons," which is down from the standard 22-gallon cell used everywhere else. Despite teams having to make more pit stops, Darby said he foresaw no changes in pit rules.

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"The pit stop rules will be the same," Darby said. "The only thing we expect is that their pit window will be less, probably 40 laps or fewer."

With the smaller cells in place for all events, the Gatorade 125-Mile Qualifying Races for the Daytona 500 can no longer be covered without a pit stop, as they had evolved into over the last few years.

While it remains to be seen exactly what the rule changes will mean across the board, independent team owner Derrike Cope sees it as a positive move.

"Realistically for us, it is a good thing," Cope said. "It puts us in a position where the wind tunnel becomes less important because of the standardized body location.

"Everybody will have to do the same thing, whether it is us or a team that has won a championship -- go to the track and work on the balance of the car downforce-wise. That part helps the smaller teams."