Dark asphalt is finally reappearing again at Iowa Speedway, and Mike Beecher knows when the snow leaves, the season is approaching. Daytime temperatures top out in the upper-30s in March, not bad considering the past couple of weeks when snow buried Newton, Iowa. Still, this is their "thawing" period -- the time leading up to Easter when the frigid Midwestern region sees temps rise slowly and snow melt even slower.

On the seven-eighths-mile track adjacent to tiny Newton Municipal Airport, the ice, Beecher says, is starting to melt. It goes without saying, the facility isn't open for on-track activity. "As a practical matter," says Beecher, the track's director of media relations, "it's difficult to get good traction on a foot of snow."

It's business as usual at Iowa Speedway. And business, Beecher says, is good.

The track is in its third full year of operation -- Google doesn't register it on the map -- and yet the schedule is that of a grizzled veteran. The track will play host to the annual Camping World Series East/West Challenge, in addition to an IndyCar race and several other events. But added this year are dates on the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series' schedules.

The only thing missing in the portfolio: a Sprint Cup Series race.

Iowa has never worried about that in the past. It had plenty of Cup exposure with drivers and teams shuffling in and out on random weekdays for private testing sessions -- Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. But Beecher's staff never made a big deal of it. There was a media session here and there, but for the most part teams flew into Newton, hopped on a golf cart and within five minutes were in the garage buckling the HANS device.

"One of the things they really liked about coming to Iowa was that they're almost off the beaten track," Beecher says. "It has its advantages of getting to the track quickly, getting on a state-of-the-art track with state-of-the-art facilities, being able to get in and get out. It's been pretty much a hassle-free environment."

But now -- this week and this season -- the track will sit idle. Cup drivers won't be shuttling through the back door of what amounted to a dream testing facility because NASCAR doesn't allow it.

NASCAR altered its testing policy for 2009 in an effort to help teams better manage costs. No testing is allowed at any sanctioned track that has Cup, Nationwide or Truck racing, nor tracks with Camping World East or West events. The ban put a tarp on what many consider a necessary evil -- swollen weekday schedules with teams traipsing across the country testing just to keep up with the Hendricks and Roushes and RCRs of the Cup Series.

Millions of dollars have been saved by race teams, according to one organization's general manager. And the ban has been a balance sheet dream for places like New Smyrna Speedway, just south of Daytona, which has since seen Cup haulers sneak into town without disruption for a day-long session. But in an economy like today's, for every profit there's also a deficit.

The losers

Kentucky Speedway's sweeping 1.5-mile layout was a hotbed of activity, considering nearly 40 percent of the Cup schedule is on intermediate-style race tracks. Iowa Speedway's short track layout attracted several teams, as well as its convenient proximity to a landing strip. Those tracks are quiet now, trudging through the winter months and learning to be creative in trying to fill a financial hole.

"We're used to hearing the Cup drivers on the track," Beecher says of the test sessions Iowa used to host. "It's become a rite of spring."

Beecher won't disclose financial numbers nor the exact price tag to rent the facility for a test session (going rate is between $5,000 and $6,000 a day), but he admits reality may sink in this spring when that income is no longer present. And he's not alone.

Like Iowa, the Nationwide, Truck and IndyCar series all race at Kentucky Speedway -- but there is no Cup race. So the track traditionally welcomed testing dates with open arms and the local publicity was a boon. The PR staff conducted interviews with drivers and sent out press releases that kept the public abreast of track activity when a Cup team was in town. Drivers cooperated. Fans ate it up. And the speedway benefited from the high-tier publicity -- and in the pocketbook.

"When a NASCAR team comes here, it's $6,000 a day," says Mike Schmaltz, Kentucky Speedway's senior manager of marketing, public relations and communications. "You can do the math and figure out that's a pretty big financial impact for us."

And so far it's been a tough hole to fill. Every track is throwing darts at creating the new big-hit ticket package to fill seats, so that alone won't make up for the dent caused by the change in NASCAR's testing policy. "I don't know if there's anything we can do to replace that kind of revenue stream," Schmaltz admits. "Obviously, we can try to sell as many tickets as we can. We'd love to fill that void."

Iowa Speedway's plan has been to host more driving schools. In addition to the regular schools that make their rounds during the summer months, Iowa also has contracted several local schools for track use to help supplement the lost income. It won't make up for everything, but then again, Iowa faces different circumstances than Kentucky; Iowa is not a year-round facility.

So when the track does get completely thawed in April, the budget will become a glaring problem. The positive, however, is that the following month brings the Camping World Series East/West Challenge to town and the racing season commences -- a season bigger than any other at Iowa.

"The enthusiasm of this season has diminished the fact that we lost our testing," Beecher says. "So there's a sense of excitement here that likely doesn't exist at some of the other tracks where they painfully feel the implications of the testing ban, particularly those tracks that offer year-round racing. There are winners and losers."

The winners

Kim Brown is in her office finishing up last-minute details for the weekend. It's a big one -- weekly racing begins at New Smyrna Speedway. There'll be super late models, pro-trucks, mini-stocks, super stocks and strictly stocks. And of course, there's the Miss New Smyrna Speedway pageant.

That's just Saturday's schedule. By then, she will have already overseen Friday night racing at sister track Orlando Speed World, with seven different classes racing in one night. It's a typical weekend for Brown, the operations manager for both Florida short tracks. Her offseason is over.

"It is extremely hectic," she says. "We operate two race tracks out of this office, and there are basically three people that run two race tracks and all our touring series and everything. So it's a busy place."

The season at New Smyrna Speedway goes from February to November. That leaves two months for Brown and staff to recover and, well, do it all over again. But this December and January were different as Cup Series haulers rolled into the parking lot, albeit under little fanfare. Since New Smyrna isn't on the schedule for NASCAR's three national touring series, or its two major regional series, the coveted track is fair game for testing.

Cup teams had tested there before, sometimes to introduce a young driver to short-track racing or to help build rapport between driver and crew chief after a personnel change. The two Stewart-Haas Racing teams of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman did just that in January. Stewart was familiar with the track since his former team, Joe Gibbs Racing, was a frequent visitor there before the rule change. But in January, it was tougher to schedule track time.

"There's definitely been an increase since the [no testing] rule was put into place," Brown says. "We had some teams that tested here pretty regularly before the rule, but we've definitely seen an increase since. Last year we had two to four. This year we had 10-12."

The significant increase has meant more work for Brown and the two other full-time staffers at New Smyrna. The biggest task: keeping the news of a Cup team in town quiet. "We really try to unlock the gates and lock them back and let them work," she says. "Obviously, we try not to have too many meetings and too many people coming in and out while they're here because this is a small community and word travels fast."

If there are indeed winners and losers in the testing policy change, New Smyrna Speedway is a winner. "Absolutely," Brown says. "It's a great impact on us, especially the way the economy is. Our offseason is December and January. When we don't race, there's no income yet the bills still have to be paid. This helps tremendously."

Brown, however, would not disclose the exact financial impact of the testing policy change, but she did note that the track did not increase its daily rate to rent the facility simply just to make an extra buck.

There are others like New Smyrna. Others such as Rockingham Speedway, which has hosted a handful of teams that have dabbled at the former Cup track to see if it can provide reads on some of the current facilities. Track owner Andy Hillenburg also paved a paperclip half-mile in Rockingham's backyard that serves as a Martinsville duplicate, complete with concrete corners and asphalt straights.

"He really hit a need there because there's not too many places you get to go that are like Martinsville, other than Martinsville," says Greg Erwin, crew chief for the No. 16 car of Greg Biffle. Erwin took his team to Texas World Speedway during the winter to scout out the facility and see if it would be a feasible option for future testing since its 2-mile layout is similar to Michigan International Speedway. Biffle hit 218 mph at the test, but Erwin says the focus of the trip simply was to check out the track's capabilities.

Erwin cautions that testing merely provides a general feel for the basics when it's not on an actual NASCAR-sanctioned track. That, he says, will limit testing at non-sanctioned tracks.

"Truthfully, from a crew chief's point of view -- and from a driver's point of view -- I'm not going to go find a race track that's anything like Loudon, N.H., and go there and learn much of anything unless I go to Loudon, N.H.," Erwin says. "So the thought that we're going to just completely drive all around the country and go to different race tracks and just test parts after parts and different setups, we're not going to do it. Heck, we go to some of these race tracks where the track changes from Friday to Saturday so much just because of track conditions. And it's the same race track.

"I'm not going to learn anything going to some of these tracks and testing. Where am I going to go test for Atlanta other than Atlanta? So it's definitely going to cut down on the amount of testing. Anybody that says it's not, I think, is crazy."

The savings

Trimming testing -- at sanctioned and non-sanctioned tracks -- in turn trims budgets. Mike Dillon, vice president of competition at Richard Childress Racing, says the four-car outfit has saved about $4 million just because of the rule change. He says he's confident that the entire garage has saved money, but the bigger impact is on the bigger teams simply due to their traveling band that would normally go to the tests.

"We're a four-car team so you're looking at a million dollars a team," he says. "I think that's minimum. It's a larger savings for us because of the way we go about testing. We carry more people and have more engineers going."

Where did those savings come from? There's track rental fees, travel fees, lodging, food -- all up-front costs that balloon into thousands of dollars for an overnight stay.

But there are also hidden costs that the general public doesn't see, contends Erwin.

"What they don't understand is that we put mileage on our components when we test. And the more mileage we put on our components, the more it costs us to replace those components, all the way from the engine to the transmission to the rear-end gears and obviously tires," he says.

"Tires are not cheap -- they're $1,500 a set. We can go places and go through six or seven sets of tires a day just to test. Fuel is not cheap. We go through 60 gallons a test easily. Travel is not cheap. Mileage on an engine -- we go somewhere and test and put 400 miles on an engine, that engine has got to come out and go through the engine shop and get rebuilt. You've got labor costs, machine costs, parts costs."

The savings, however, don't mean teams are in the black just yet.

"We saved $4 million this year but you've got to remember last year or a year and a half ago, we were $9 million over budget because we were developing a brand-new car," Dillon says of RCR's financial numbers. "It cost us $3 million a team to develop that car and we're still behind from that year. Unfortunately the economy hit the way it did at the same time. You're fighting to catch up from two years ago and the economy hit the way it has, it's a struggle right now."

Traditional preseason testing at Daytona that lasted two weeks and then at Fontana and Las Vegas for a week were both canceled under the policy change. Instead, NASCAR held a fan fest at Daytona Beach for drivers to get face time with the fans. That allowed crews to work on cars back in North Carolina in a much greater capacity than before, when traditionally they would have been traveling in January. And all that had teams actually excited about being at the race track in February.

"Everybody's used to being at the race track doing things and racing, so everybody was really jacked up and excited about coming to Daytona by the time it came around," Dillon says. "We hadn't been there yet and were trying to figure out if we were good or not and anticipating making those first laps on the track."

Dillon is not alone in his upbeat assessment, according to Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition.

"The typical reaction is extremely positive about the testing policy," he says. "At first there was a lot of uncertainty and unknowns. But after talking to the teams and going into Daytona, they were all like, 'We'll wait and see, but boy it's been a good offseason. We spent a lot of quality time working on cars instead of taking them to the track right after the season.' After the first couple of races, the feedback has still been man, it's great. It's to the point where quite a few have said, 'Boy, I hope we don't ever bring it back.' We'll see. It's a long season."

The loopholes

Heading to Daytona with somewhat of a blank slate placed a higher demand on resources like manufacturer support and opportunities such as Goodyear tire tests, which are invitation-only.

RCR's four teams were among the 14 Chevrolet-backed organizations that journeyed to Arizona for a three-day test session in January at the General Motors Desert Proving Grounds, a sprawling, multiple-track testing facility for GM's production vehicles. It's not an uncommon stop for Chevy teams, and every other manufacturer has access to a similar facility. Pat Suhy, GM Racing's NASCAR group manager, said teams use the facility every year, only this year they all consolidated and tested at one session, primarily using the time for superspeedway work to offset no Daytona testing. RCR had 10 cars at DPG -- primary and backup Daytona 500 cars for all four teams, plus Budweiser Shootout cars for Harvick and Casey Mears.

The reason teams go to DPG and other manufacturer facilities is simple: resources. Suhy said the change in testing policy has decreased the demand on engine parts since teams aren't torturing as many motors during two- and three-day test sessions. But the engineering support has remained.

“

We have got to make sure we have the ability to select the teams that are going to give us the best data and help us out the most. We have an agreement with NASCAR and I think the teams understand that that is the No. 1 priority.

”

GREG STUCKER, Goodyear

"I think we tend to be more of an engineering resource, typically looking not at next week but next month or next year, as opposed to the teams that are looking week-to-week," Suhy says. "Some of it's supplemental. It's actually surprising. Some of the bigger teams are more demanding than some of the smaller teams because they have the ability internally to use more of the tools.

"A smaller team may only be able to use a couple of the tools we have in our toolbox, whereas a bigger team like Hendrick or RCR or EGR [Earnhardt Ganassi Racing] has more in-house capability -- you can hand over the tools, train them to use them, and they're capable of using them."

Loading up and traveling to the desert, however, is a once-a-year thing. A bigger premium is placed on the coveted Goodyear tire tests. "We became very popular with the new testing policy," says Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales.

Selecting teams for one of Goodyear's 16 tests this year is more critical than ever. Stucker said the tire maker will examine which teams did well at a track, which teams did poorly and which teams have not already been utilized at a test before submitting a recommended list of participants to NASCAR -- one from each of the four manufacturers. Once NASCAR OK's the list, the test is scheduled.

Wednesday wrapped up a two-day test at Darlington with Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Bobby Labonte and Elliott Sadler. Next week, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Marcos Ambrose will take part in a mid-week test for Goodyear at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

While interest has increased and the pressure to be fair within the garage has mounted, Stucker says Goodyear has not swayed from its top priority of recommending the best product. And quite frankly, some teams are better at making recommendations than others.

"We have got to make sure we have the ability to select the teams that are going to give us the best data and help us out the most. We have an agreement with NASCAR and I think the teams understand that that is the No. 1 priority," Stucker says. "But again, we're kind of in an agreement with everybody that we'll try to be fair. Given the policy and the way that it is, we don't want to play favorites to anyone and we don't want to give any particular team or any particular organization an advantage over anybody else.

"So I think teams have always sort of placed a premium on being part of the tire test program. Now with the restrictions on testing at where we run national events, that premium is just a little bit higher."

“

Throughout the years we've addressed it and changed it to the needs of the competitors. So we evaluate it every year and make the changes accordingly. We wouldn't be looking to change this any time between now and the end of the season.

”

ROBIN PEMBERTON, NASCAR

This latest change in the testing policy is just that -- another change.

From 2006-2008, NASCAR governed testing at a variety of different race tracks, including Preseason Thunder at Daytona. Six tests were conducted in 2008. Seven stops were made in 2007, the year NASCAR began implementation of the new car. Facilities ranged from short tracks (Bristol) to intermediates (Las Vegas) to superspeedways (Talladega). A similar testing policy was used in 2006.

Before that, in 2005, teams were given parameters for testing and allowed five two-day, private tests (including Daytona) and four single-day tests for a total of 14 dates. Rookies were given two additional two-day tests and one additional single-day test. But those rules only applied to tracks that hosted a Cup race, giving places like Kentucky Speedway an open door for year-round sessions.

"The test policy is really one of the most fluid policies we have," Pemberton says. "Throughout the years we've addressed it and changed it to the needs of the competitors. So we evaluate it every year and make the changes accordingly.

"We'll look at it, but we generally make our decisions of this nature for the entire season because the teams have set their budgets accordingly, their travel schedules accordingly, their manpower according to the work they forecast for themselves. We wouldn't be looking to change this any time between now and the end of the season."

The feedback from drivers and teams has been positive thus far. A surface judgment shows the early season successes of teams like Michael Waltrip Racing and Hall of Fame Racing as a potential product of a testing policy change, combined with Year 3 results of the new race car and its advertised parity characteristic. But Pemberton cautions that deeming the policy as an overall success already would be too early.

Having raced at Daytona and three intermediate race tracks, he says the real judgment will come once a larger cross-section of race tracks has been covered. Target May as the tell-all sign of whether the Davids have caught the Goliaths as a result of the change.

The primary focus of the policy, however, wasn't parity as much as it was saving teams money. And that, most everyone agrees, has been achieved.

"What we have to do is make sure our teams are healthy because without the teams, it doesn't do us any good to have race tracks," Pemberton says. "So we've got to keep the teams healthy first. Obviously they'll go to places none of our series run at. That lessens the benefit of testing. All in all, I think it should be a win-win for everybody."