Notes: Track error costs Newman his transmission

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Ryan Newman qualified 23rd for the Ford 400, but he won't know what getting to run in the first 20 minutes of Friday's only Sprint Cup practice would mean until race day, because thanks to an apparent miscommunication, Newman broke the transmission in his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet while still in the garage and missed almost the first quarter of practice.

The incident occurred when about half a dozen cars, including Newman's, were misdirected to the wrong gate to get from the Sprint Cup garage to pit road. Newman declined to discuss the issue, but his crew chief, Tony Gibson, explained.

"When the race track sends everybody out, normally that gate [at the start/finish end of the garage] is open," Gibson said. "Well, they had it blocked, so they were shipping everybody down between the garages [to a gate further up the back of pit road], where they were lined up. But then they locked that gate and made us go back [through the garage to the original gate]."

Greg Biffle explained there were no NASCAR officials at the usual gate when he got there, and a track security guard waved him up to the other gate, where he lined up behind Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick and in front of Newman.

A NASCAR official then let McMurray onto pit road but stopped Harvick. Biffle drove around Harvick and did a "three-point turn" to make the right-hand shift into the opening under the pit suites to get back into the garage -- and back in line for practice. Harvick then put his car into reverse and abruptly backed up, almost hitting Newman, who had started to pull up behind him.

"Trying to get everybody to come around and through that hole wasn't going to happen," Gibson said. "Guys were backing-up into other guys, so we put it in reverse to back-up in a hurry to keep Harvick from hitting us and it broke the transmission. We don't use reverse a lot and it's a lot thinner than our primary gears."

Newman immediately took his car to its garage stall, where the crew spent about the first 20 minutes of practice changing the transmission. However, the lower qualifying position aside, Newman will not be penalized for the transmission change -- which, if it occurred at the wrong point of the weekend, would have sent his car to the rear for the start.

"NASCAR was good about it, [Sprint Cup director John] Darby and them, and they let us change it without a penalty," Gibson said. "Darby said it wouldn't have been a penalty because it was before practice, but he said under the circumstances it was their fault -- not NASCAR but the race track kind of screwed up -- so NASCAR was nice enough to work with us."

But they couldn't get the lost practice time back.

"Missing that 20 minutes hurt," Gibson said. "Because we try to spend our first half-hour in race trim and then switch over, so it just threw us out of whack for a little bit."

Tire test set

Daytona International Speedway has confirmed with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company officials a December test on Daytona's newly-paved surface.

"The latest communication we got from Joie Chitwood at Daytona to our general manager, Stu Grant, was that we'd be set to go on Dec. 15 and 16," Rick Campbell, Goodyear NASCAR project manager, said Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "It'll be a two-day test and we're in the process of getting the teams notified to make sure they know how it's going to work and what the ground rules are."

Goodyear originally had requested to have the test the first week of December but was informed the track wouldn't be ready. Campbell acknowledged that moving the test closer to Christmas might impact teams' ability to participate, but Goodyear was still optimistic.

"The later we get, the more of a struggle it'll be to get teams there, because their people have vacation plans and we understand that completely," Campbell said. "We're hoping to get 15 or 20 cars there -- if we don't, we'll do the best we can with what we get."

And while NASCAR has a rain date built into its planned all-inclusive January Sprint Cup test, Campbell said the December session would be much more concise.

"I think we can get done in a day if we need to," Campbell said. "I'd really rather not keep [the teams] there an extra day."

Stewart-Haas Racing team manager Bobby Hutchens summed-up the teams' issues.

"Right now, trying to figure out if our drivers can go is our biggest issue," Hutchens said, "but we're going to have a car there, hopefully for sure because it's a good opportunity to go down and get an early indication of what the track's going to be like and what NASCAR's thinking as far as the speeds go, and what they'll do with [restrictor] plates or spoilers or what-not. And it'll be a good opportunity to get a head-start on January testing."

Phoenix still rising

Earlier this season, word in the garage was that Phoenix Racing owner James Finch was looking to sell his Nationwide Series racing operation. But Friday at Homestead, the veteran Florida car owner said he'd have both cars in Daytona for Speedweeks 2011.

"I didn't have any sponsorship for the Nationwide car so I cut it [schedule] back and run more Cup races," Finch said. "And next year I'll run it part-time if I can find some sponsorship -- I'm going to keep it all in place, definitely run Daytona and all the plate races -- about a half-dozen."

Finch said he hadn't yet spoken to new parent Ryan Newman, who most recently drove his car. In the past three seasons, in 92 Nationwide starts, Finch has a win -- with Mike Bliss at Charlotte in 2009 -- eight top-five and 35 top-10 finishes.

"I'm planning on running all the Cup races, probably with a mix of drivers there, again," Finch said. "We're going to run the first five [races] and try to get into the top 35 [in the owners' points]. We're talking to some sponsors, but we haven't got anything confirmed yet -- but I know we'll be at Daytona."

Harvick numbers Nationwide plans

Kevin Harvick confirmed on Friday at Homestead that the two full-time Nationwide Series cars that will run out of his Kevin Harvick Inc. facility next season will only have one set of guaranteed owners' points to start the 2011 season with.

Earlier this fall, Harvick and Richard Childress Racing, who are already collaborating on chassis and engine combinations in KHI's Truck and Nationwide programs, announced a deal through which KHI would field Nationwide cars for several of RCR's drivers. But the points that have been accrued this season by RCR's No. 21 car aren't part of that.

"The points from that 21 car belong to Morgan Shepherd, from what I understand," Harvick said. "We're going to transfer the [current third place] points from the 33 to the 2 [to be driven full-time by Elliott Sadler] and we'll use my past champion's status for the 33."

Bowyer plans to get dirty

Clint Bowyer said on Friday at Homestead he has big plans for his own dirt late model program in 2011 in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.

"I'm hoping to expand to two teams and I'm really, really looking forward to that," Bowyer said. "I've got a kid, Jared Landers, that's going to be driving for me in my other car and Dale [McDowell] is going to drive the other one.

"I'm looking at expanding that and being bigger and better than we ever have been. I'm certainly spending the money to do it, so I'm hoping we get the results. Dollar General's been a great supporter of that for the last three years and we're looking forward to continuing that relationship, and working on some other stuff."

McDowell ran sixth in the 2010 Lucas Oil Series and Landers, from Mark Martin's hometown of Batesville, Ark., who did some races for Bowyer this season, has a great history in modified cars -- at Daytona particularly.

Bowyer said his team would have a third car -- his own dirt modified -- at Volusia Speedway Park for the Speedweeks 2011 program.

"You want to run every night -- but you usually can't," Bowyer said, laughing. "You just go down there and feel it out, and if you're having fun, you're having success you thrash [to do it] but if you're not [succeeding] it's probably not worth working that hard.

"You run until you're out of equipment, or out of time."