Two-time Daytona 500 champion Bill Elliott turned the fastest laps in Monday's evening session of Preseason Thunder. Credit: Autostock

Elliott, new Fusion make waves as testing begins

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With eight rookies expected to compete for rookie of the year honors, been-there-done-that Bill Elliott on Monday dropped the pedal for a pace-setting lap of 187.219 mph on the first day of Preseason Thunder at Daytona.

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Elliott's 48.072-seconds turn around the 2.5-mile tri-oval bested Jimmie Johnson's 48.121 (187.029 mph) effort. Johnson also was second-fasted in the morning test session, which was led by Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon (187.029 mph).

In the afternoon session, Elliott had two of the top five speeds; he also was fifth-fastest in the No. 36b car at 185.931 mph.

"I'm stepping in to an already good deal -- MB2 has a history of fast superspeedway cars," said Elliott, who has not driven a General Motors car since October of 1979. "We got by the first hurdle by having a fast car as soon as it was unloaded. If you're not fast off the trailer, it's then difficult to find that extra speed. We're in good shape after the first day of testing."

Elliott, who last entered the Daytona 500 in 2003, is a two-time winner of NASCAR's biggest race and has claimed the pole for the 500 a record-tying four times.

"Everything went smoothly [Monday]," Elliott said. "This team is so connected. We've got a strong baseline and that will allow us to experiment more the next two days. I just mashed the pedal and took off for a very fast ride. It's nice to be on top of the speed charts, but I'd rather be at the top in another month."

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Elliott Sadler was third, followed by Gordon, in the top five of the afternoon test.

Monday marked the first day of Nextel Cup Series testing for the new Ford Fusion, and from the early returns it looks as if Matt Kenseth and Sadler have a jump on their fellow blue oval drivers.

"Anytime you bring a new body type to a race track or open a season with it, you're going to have different things that you've got to do to massage on it and get it right, get it close," Sadler said. "But from a team standpoint, we've been so lucky how much testing Ford has done in the wind tunnel before we got it. They ran it through the wind tunnel time and time again, and massaged on it for us, and it really got it great. By the time the actual teams got the car, the Fusion was pretty much in race-ready trim.

"When we got it, the guys put the nose and tail on it, and massaged it all it up and got it right. We got to the wind tunnel and we were pretty close. We were like, 'Wow, we're right here in the ballgame.' So, we knew when we unloaded [Monday] morning that the Fusion was going to be fast, and it has been. One of my cars has been pretty good, and it's driving good."

The Fusion is the first new race car and new production car introduced by Ford at the same time since 1968 with the Torino.

Kenseth was fourth-fastest in the morning and Sadler was fifth; in the afternoon session Kenseth was sixth.

"I was tickled with the response that I'm getting from the race teams," said Greg Specht, Performance Operations Manager for Ford. "We spent a lot of time and effort along with them in developing the car, and you really never know until you get out on the track what you've got.

"This is the first time we've been under real, live testing conditions against the other manufacturers and so forth, and so far things look pretty good, so we're pretty excited about it."

Kenseth was one of five Roush Racing drivers to make the Chase lat year in a Ford Taurus, and after the first test session Specht said the Fusion has the potential to be a better racecar.

"I think that the car is better than the one that we raced last year," he said. "I'm guardedly optimistic. We can only go by the wind-tunnel numbers that we've seen on our own car, and those indications are that we're a little better than we were last year.

"Again, you won't know until you get on the race track and the green flag drops, but so far we think we're OK."

• Gordon paces Cup field during first test session