Jamie McMurray and Jimmy Fennig couldn't afford to waste a single minute of testing. Credit: Don Bok/Motorsports Images and Archives

McMurray closes shop as Daytona testing ends

Kyle Busch caps week by leading final session, three of six overall

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Preseason Thunder at Daytona is in the books.

Now the real work begins.

The final Nextel Cup teams packed up and left Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday, concluding the series' first and only restrictor-plate test of the 2006 season.

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Next up on the schedule is the critical intermediate track test at Las Vegas, which runs Jan. 30-Feb. 1.

Kyle Busch's lap of 190.251 mph led the final test session as teams got in a full day of drafting practice.

Busch's No. 5 Chevrolet was consistently the fastest car of the week. He paced three of the six sessions.

Most teams worked on getting their cars to handle well for the 200-lap Daytona 500, but Jamie McMurray says he and crew chief Jimmy Fennig are taking a different approach.

"We're going to take our fast car and try to make it drive well," McMurray said. "Jimmy has a lot of little things and tricks to try."

Most of the teams left Daytona about mid-afternoon, but McMurray and Fennig elected to run until the garage closed.

"I don't ever leave tests early. I stay as long as they let you," McMurray said. "Jimmy is the same way. I enjoy testing and trying to learn and especially this year you can't test, so when you get it you use all the time you have."

Some of that time was cumbersome. Testing at Daytona often means sitting on pit road waiting for your turn to make laps. That alone makes some drivers crazy.

Robby Gordon joked that he was going to answer e-mail while waiting on pit road.

"I saw Greg Biffle out there on his cell phone," Gordon said. "I thought, 'Tomorrow, I'm taking my Blackberry out there and getting some stuff done!'"

• Fusions hit top speeds in Wednesday AM draft session

Wednesday afternoon session