Mike McLaughlin had a best speed of 188.029 testing the No. 20 Chevrolet. Credit: Autostock

McLaughlin, Fuller test for Gibbs at Daytona

Former Modified champs fill in for Stewart at Preseason Thunder

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If Tony Stewart is successful in winning his second consecutive Nextel Cup Series victory at Daytona International Speedway, he'll be able to thank a serious "New England Connection."

A year ago, former Featherlite Modified champion and Joe Gibbs Racing Busch Series driver Mike McLaughlin tuned Stewart's Speedweeks 2005 cars. It paid off with a victory in one Gatorade Duel and seventh in the 500, after Stewart led the most laps.

Mike McLaughlin and fabricator Bruce D'Alessandro tested JGR's No. 20 at Daytona. Credit: Don Bok/Motorsports Images and Archives

Joe Gibbs Racing Testing Monday morning session No. Driver Pos. Speed 20a M. McLaughlin 6 185.927 80b J. Fuller 13 184.809 20b M. McLaughlin 15 184.642 80a J. Fuller 30 183.733 Monday afternoon session No. Driver Pos. Speed 20a M. McLaughlin 7 185.713 80b J. Fuller 12 184.904 80a J. Fuller 21 184.517 20b M. McLaughlin 30 183.869 Tuesday morning session No. Driver Pos. Speed 20a M. McLaughlin 3 186.382 80b J. Fuller 7 185.713 80a J. Fuller 8 185.613 20b M. McLaughlin 14 185.216 Tuesday afternoon session No. Driver Pos. Speed 20a M. McLaughlin 7 186.614 80b J. Fuller 12 185.468 80a J. Fuller 13 185.280 20b M. McLaughlin 19 184.638 Wednesday morning session No. Driver Pos. Speed 80b J. Fuller 19 185.877 20a M. McLaughlin 21 185.613 80a J. Fuller 23 184.873 20b M. McLaughlin 28 183.932 Wednesday afternoon session No. Driver Pos. Speed 80b J. Fuller 6 188.426 20a M. McLaughlin 10 188.029 20b M. McLaughlin 25 186.536 80a J. Fuller 31 000.000 SUB HOLDS OWN FOR JGR Mike McLaughlin is testing JGR's No. 20 Chevrolet while Tony Stewart drives in the Chili Bowl.  •   Complete story, click here

Stewart's next Nextel Cup start just happens to be the 48th Daytona 500, and if he backs up his win in last summer's Pepsi 400 he'll have an unlikely combination of New England Modified racers to thank.

Two pairs of Gibbs Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlos were nestled at one end of Daytona's garage area earlier in the week, during the first session of Preseason Thunder testing in preparation for Speedweeks 2006.

And at the end of two days of single car runs and another day set aside for drafting practice, both were comfortably fixed in the top 10 on the speed chart.

McLaughlin had Stewart's primary car -- with which the 2005 Nextel Cup champion scored a win, two seconds and the seventh in four restrictor-plate starts last season -- in sixth on the chart.

"This is pretty cool because obviously it's one of the best organizations to be with," McLaughlin said. "It's just a good bunch of people, so it's fun at the same time that hopefully we're helping them out."

The other cars, Gibbs' No. 80 Chevy that team manager Jimmy Makar said would be entered as a "backup," was installed in 10th on the sheet by another former Featherlite Modified champion, Jeff Fuller.

"Obviously, they've got enough faith in us to give them the feedback that they need, so yeah, that was real cool to be able to do this test," Fuller, a former Busch Series Rookie of the Year, said of the New England reunion.

At one point last Monday, a garage stall confab included Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli, a Connecticut native who raced with McLaughlin in Modifieds and Busch North events, McLaughlin, Fuller and JGR fabricator Bruce D'Alessandro, another Connecticut native and a former track champion at the late Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, Mass.

It was one of the highlights of a somewhat brutal three days of tedious Daytona testing, along with a Tuesday night dinner that included that gang plus a pair of New England Modified legends, multiple national champion Carl "Bugs Stevens" Berghman and owner Bob Judkins.

"It doesn't get any better than that," Zipadelli said. "There's no doubt, growing up I had a few idols and Bugsy was sure one of mine. Growing up and listening to my dad tell all the old stories about him and Bugsy and my uncle Billy and all the goofing around and horseplay they used to do.

"So we got to have a few buckets of clams with them and [talk] about old times, and it was a lot of fun."

"That was like old home week," McLaughlin said, laughing. "Bugsy is 72 years old and he's just as crazy as he ever was. You know, it does seem like it was just yesterday [we were back home racing]."

"It's real important to me that one of my best friends, Mike, can come down here and help us out with this test, spend some time together and go to dinner and this and that," Zipadelli said. "It's fun for me on top of him doing a great job for us."

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"At night we got to go out and swap some stories [because] at the racetrack it's impossible," Fuller said. "This is a pretty close-knit bunch of guys anyway, and they go out and get along real good together."

"It's pretty cool that we're down here together and we've had a pretty good time this weekend," McLaughlin said. "That's what it's all about -- we're still having fun."

Makar said the team's affinity is a good thing when it comes to testing.

"This test was about two days too long," Makar said Wednesday evening. "We had a lot of stuff to try and went through a lot of things. It was typical Daytona testing for us -- 90 percent of the things you try don't work and you find a few that do.

"There was a lot of time and energy put into this test, but that's the way Daytona is -- there's not a lot left out there to be found and you have to work real hard at finding it."

Makar said Stewart's primary car was "good and competitive" and two of the others were "average." The fourth, a "new design" was "not very good."

Makar said Wednesday's work in the draft was critical for the team's Speedweeks hopes.

"We tried some things in the draft that we had on our list to try to help our cars in race conditions and I think we found one or two things that made them a little bit better in race trim," Makar said. "And that's a good thing, because it's hard to find stuff like that."

In the end, maybe the best thing that McLaughlin and Fuller enabled was more rest for Stewart, who took advantage of his test help to compete in a personal joy, the annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla.

"Hopefully he's really getting himself ready, mentally, with the Midget thing," Zipadelli said with a laugh. "But no, he deserves it. He races hard and does a great job for us so we need to give him as much rest and fun time as he can get."

Speaking of hard racing, that was how Fuller and McLaughlin fashioned their Northeast legacies, but Fuller only could wrinkle his brow when asked for his best McLaughlin racing story.

"I don't think we ever got together, or anything, and we were both pretty fierce competitors," Fuller said. "I remember he used to run real good up at Oswego [New York], but we won a couple times up there."

"We had a lot of great races, but there isn't one that really stands out," McLaughlin said. "I don't recall ever racing with him for a win, but Jeff's always been a good competitor and I've had a lot of good races with Jeff."

But none may pay off as well as the latest get together, in a simple preseason test.