Notebook: Biffle hits 218 mph in test at Texas World

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With NASCAR's ban on testing at sanctioned facilities sending its national series teams far and wide to rack up some mileage, Greg Biffle's Roush Fenway Racing Ford team was the first Cup operation to test at the newly-spruced-up, two-mile Texas World Speedway, whose last Cup race was held in 1981 and won by the late Benny Parsons.

Biffle, whose history includes a heavy crash in testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in December 2006, voiced his opinion on the speeds achieved at Texas World, but said nothing about a lack of SAFER barriers at the track.

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"[It was] very fast," Biffle said. "A little bit bumpy, which is to be expected of a race track that the pavement is that old, but just a very fast place. It's kind of a fun race track, but our cars today are probably pretty dang fast for a race track like that."

Biffle said his Thursday afternoon speeds in College Station on Jan. 15 were the "fastest I've been in a race car before -- 218 miles an hour. That's getting her done, if you want to say -- 195 mile an hour average, so it was a pretty fast place."

Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile track that's acknowledged as the series' fastest due to carburetor restrictor plates being used at Daytona and Talladega, has a record qualifying speed of 197.478 mph. Its fastest qualifying speed last year, when NASCAR's new car was used, was only 185.251 mph by Jeff Gordon.

At Michigan International Speedway, a two-mile track considered similar to Texas when both held Cup races, had a pole speed last August with the new car of 188.536 mph, by Brian Vickers.

Junior says "Shootout sucks"

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s appreciation of NASCAR racing's history is evident through more than just his "Back in the Day" retro racing shows on SPEED Channel; and it's why Earnhardt says the format for the season-opening Shootout on Feb. 7 at Daytona International Speedway "just sucks."

Earnhardt appeared at Preseason Thunder Fan Fest at Daytona and was asked what he thought of NASCAR expanding the field, formerly comprised of pole winners from the previous season and former event winners to 28 cars: The top six of each manufacturer's cars from the 2008 Sprint Cup owner standings and then one "wild card" entry from each manufacturer that was manipulated by NASCAR.

"I wish you wouldn't have asked me because I didn't want to talk about it -- I don't like the new format," Earnhardt said. "You had a race [Shootout] for guys who won poles, you had a [all-star] race for guys who won races in the middle of the season -- and now neither one of those are hardly recognizable. (Continued)