At Daytona, drivers have question: Why test at all?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The ban on testing at NASCAR tracks was designed to save money in a tough economy.

After one of the best big-track shows in recent memory -- Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway -- it's apparent NASCAR's frugal policy saved a lot more than that, namely wear and tear on the organizations that compete in Sprint Cup racing.

By this time last year, teams had crisscrossed the United States for two test sessions in Daytona and one each in Las Vegas and Fontana, Calif., at a minimum.

• Cup Series tickets
• Nationwide Series tickets
• Truck Series tickets
• Book your travel

This year, drivers, owners and crews arrived for Speedweeks fresh in body and spirit, full of pent-up enthusiasm, harboring undiluted dreams of winning the Daytona 500 or, in the case of the lower-tier organizations, simply making the field.

"If you look at the crew guys, they're not beat up from having to run across the country all winter," Shootout winner Kevin Harvick said (watch video). "The drivers are excited to come down here. Everybody is excited to be at the race track, smell the fumes of the cars, drive laps. There's just that added enthusiasm.

"It's like everybody got a wakeup call and said, 'Hey, we need to get our stuff together.' We have never not been able to go to the race track and not test. Now you get to come to the race track, and it's like taking your favorite toy away. It's almost like you got grounded for a few months, and now you get to come out and have fun with it again."

Against that backdrop, the Shootout was a rollicking good time, with records set for different leaders (14), lead changes (23) and cautions (eight). After a fourth-place finish, Jeff Gordon said the race was "absolutely madness out there."

Less than 24 hours later, Martin Truex Jr., who wasn't eligible to race in the Shootout, won the pole for the Daytona 500. Truex drives for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, the product of a difficult birth during the offseason. Truex, too, was happy for the test ban, as the principals of the organization spent the winter cobbling together Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

"I think that a little bit more time off gets you prepared better," Truex said. "We came down here with a better race car than we've ever come down here with, without even testing. It gave the guys time. With all that went on this winter with us, with our team, with moving shops and combining our efforts, I think testing would have hurt us more than helped us.

"I think it was to our advantage that nobody could test, because I think we would have been a little behind if we had to. I think that it would have taken away from our efforts at the shop and getting everything prepared just right. As far as coming down here and testing, I think it hurts not going to the downforce tracks a little bit as a driver, but I think I did enough racing online to keep the rust off."

Don't expect every race to equal the drama of the Shootout, where drivers are willing to up the ante in risk-taking because no championship points are on the line.

"[Saturday] night, nobody was giving an inch," Jimmie Johnson said Sunday before qualifying. "The bump-drafting was back to slam-drafting. From here on out until the last restart [in the Daytona 500], it's going to be pretty calm -- at least, that's what I'm hoping."

Maybe discretion will be the better part of valor for the rest of Speedweeks, but it's already apparent the lack of testing may have helped rather than hurt the level of competition. Just look at the sleek, beautifully prepared race car the Wood Brothers brought to the track after spending the winter getting it ready. Bill Elliott had the fifth-fastest speed in qualifying driving that No. 21 Ford.

If Harvick has his way, testing at NASCAR tracks will be a thing of the past.

"I hope we cancel testing every winter," Harvick said. "I hate testing."

If the Shootout is an indication, he's right. Who needs it?