CONCORD, N.C. -- Early returns on the spoiler following lengthy morning-and-afternoon Sprint Cup Series test sessions at Charlotte Motor Speedway were favorable.

It didn't really matter who went the fastest, and no one even seemed sure what it all meant because cars weren't running in large packs anywhere close to how they'll run during an actual race at CMS or at any other track, 1.5 miles or otherwise.

So in many ways, the jury is still out on the spoiler that will be used for the first time Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. But in other, more simple ways, drivers seemed pleased to have the spoiler back in place. It was like an old friend had been returned to the cars they've wheeled without spoilers -- and with wings attached to rear decks instead -- part-time since 2007 and full-time since 2008.

“

The car has a lot of grip with the tire combination and the spoiler, so it drives really good.

”

-- KEVIN HARVICK

"For me personally, it was good to know and put out of my mind that the spoiler was going to be a drastic difference in the way the car drove. That is not the case," Kevin Harvick said. "The car has a lot of grip with the tire combination and the spoiler, so it drives really good."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added: "Every time I've put it on, I haven't really been able to tell a difference. It's not a big difference, for sure. It's probably a little too early to tell, but that's what I think right now."

Earnhardt added that much of the sport's history has been built around race cars that have had spoilers on them. Because of that, he said, it should be no great surprise that the cars with wings never caught on -- with drivers or fans.

He also said the spoiler -- four inches tall on all tracks expect Daytona and Talladega, where it will measure 4.5 inches -- can in no way make the racing, which he insisted has not been bad, any worse.

"The racing really should look about the same -- and I think the races have been pretty good this year. If anything, it definitely will not hurt it," Earnhardt said. "The spoiler always worked pretty well and did a pretty good job, and they've got a lot of information from the spoiler over the years. So we all kind of know how the spoiler works.

"We don't really know the wing that well -- and NASCAR doesn't know the wing that well. There wasn't a lot of effort to really manipulate the wing to see if it could change the way the racing was. We can with the spoiler because we know so much about it over the last 30 years."

Pat Tryson, crew chief for driver Martin Truex Jr., said this newest version of the spoiler is different than spoilers used in years past.

"The new spoiler is not quite as pretty as the old spoiler and they don't let you do enough other stuff around the new one like we did with the old car," Tryson said. "We'll get used to it and we'll see what things make it tick and get a little better."

That is, after all, what these tests are all about -- finding out what works and what doesn't. And then it all could change this Sunday when the spoiler is implemented in an actual race. Plus it will change again and again depending on which types of tracks it subsequently is used on.

"Really," Kasey Kahne said, "until you get in the race and until you get with a lot of cars, you don't know exactly what's going to go on."