Without testing, Fontana favors cars without change

FONTANA, Calif. -- For the first time in several seasons, Sprint Cup teams did not get a chance to test during the offseason at Auto Club Speedway. But has it really made a difference?

Depending on who you ask, the answer is yes ... and no.

"It's weird, not testing," Jamie McMurray said. "When we tested out here at Las Vegas or at Fontana every year, it's kind of odd, but since we haven't tested it, once you get on the track it just doesn't seem that much different than what it did in the past."

From practice and qualifying speeds this weekend, it appears that the teams that have traditionally been strong in Southern California haven't lost any of their advantage. Jack Roush's Fords and the Chevrolets of Rick Hendrick -- winners of all but two of the past 10 races here -- are liberally sprinkled at the top of the lineup (read more).

And Saturday's final practice was more of the same. Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon occupied five of the top six positions, with only Denny Hamlin crashing the party in second (speeds).

Brian Vickers, who won the pole but will start last on Sunday because his crew made an engine change, was 19th-fastest.

"I didn't know what to expect," said Carl Edwards, who was 13th-fastest in the session. "I didn't know if we were going to be fast or slow or whatever. It looks like we're pretty good. It looks like Jimmie's real good. So, I don't think a ton has changed, but we haven't gotten into race practice. I'm sure there's a lot of teams still that have a lot of things to do. So, I think you'll really know after race practice, kind of how everybody stacks up."

Johnson sees it as a continuation of the momentum that the top teams carried from 2008.

"I really think you have to go back to the conclusion of last season and look at the way everybody was running on certain types of tracks and start there," Johnson said. "I don't know how much we can all learn without testing. It's going to be a great test to the engineers and the seven post rigs and all that stuff that we all own and use, but we're always able to go to the track and validate it and see if that stuff has worked or not. So, in my mind, I look at who was strong at these tracks last year." (Continued)