Drivers pleased with how new car handles the draft

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Horsepower gets you in the field at a restrictor-plate track like Daytona International Speedway. But it's the way the car handles in traffic that gets you to Victory Lane at the end of the Daytona 500.

After running one car at a time for three test sessions, teams were anxious to acquire information about how the cars would draft as they put the NASCAR chassis through its paces for the first time at Daytona.

Reed Sorenson

Not worried

Tires were coming back blistered after testing runs and Casey Mears and Reed Sorenson each suffered spins but drivers say they're not concerned about how the tires are holding up at Daytona.

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Teams used some of Tuesday's afternoon session to run in small packs. There were two incidents -- Reed Sorenson spun and Casey Mears scraped the wall -- reportedly caused by blown tires. But tire wear isn't expected to be a concern for Speedweeks, according to most of the drivers.

"I was drafting when I cut the tire," Sorenson said of his incident. "It slid sideways through Turn 3 and down off the racetrack. It tore up the splitter a bit, but that was it.

"Luckily I was in the back, and I was about a lap from coming in because we were trying to get some data on some airboxes, and that's when it happened, so luckily no one was around me and it didn't tear any cars up."

Most of the top teams were back on the track Wednesday morning, using up the remainder of their tire allotment before calling it a day. Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin and Kyle and Kurt Busch ran nose-to-tail for several laps.

From early indications, the racing should be as good -- or possibly better -- when teams return next month for the season-opener. Drivers agreed that the new chassis design allows for better bump drafting.

"It seemed like in the same way the cars worked at Talladega, I guess if two guys get hooked up nose-to-tail and they're really pushing one another, you can really take off and get out there," Carl Edwards said. "That's gonna be a factor if a couple of guys can knife up through the field.

"I believe that the handling is gonna be the No. 1 thing. Handling is gonna mean more here than it did at Talladega when we ran these cars last year, so I think it's gonna be an exciting race. I'm looking forward to it."

Elliott Sadler noticed similar characteristics, and expects things to get racier with more cars in the pack.

"We learned a lot about the draft today," Sadler said. "Two cars get can hooked up and bump draft pretty well and pass a lot of cars. Cars are going to slide around and move. You guys are going to have plenty of stories to write about after Thursday's [qualifying] races. It should be pretty fun to watch. I think these guys are going to put on a really good show for the Daytona 500, just how hard they are to drive.

"Handling is really going to be an issue. I don't think you're going to see one car run up front all day long. A couple of guys can gang up with each other and pass the leader, no problem. We were able to do that today with only five cars drafting, so add another 37-38 cars to it, it should be a lot of fun." (Continued)