Daytona testing resumed after the Trucks took their turn, and it was a good mixture of speeds up top. David Gilliland timed first on Day One of this second test, but that's irrelevent given Gilliland's lack of killer instinct in his handful of Winston Cup starts, a bad sign for his career, as one can calm down an aggressive driver but one cannot fire up a weak driver.
Juan Montoya as expected saw his technology savvy help Ganassi/SABCO Racing, as they posted 1-2 on the Tuesday AM speed charts. Of the other Dodges, Elliott Sadler was 6th on the cumulative chart, Kyle Petty was 16th, and the Penske Dodges surprisingly sluggish at 18th (Ryan Newman, beginning the post-Matt Borland era) and 20th (Kurt Busch).
Toyota had five cars and the BDR Camrys as expected topped the Toyota charts; Mike Skinner was 7th on the cumulative chart and Jeremy Mayfield slipped from second on Monday to 11th on Tuesday. Michael Waltrip's Toyotas were less impressive as David reutimann was 17th and Mikey only 21st. The Red Bull team, meanwhile, was just 24th with A.J. Allmendinger, who was replaced in a pre-planned swap by Brian Vickers.
RCR was sluggish as they were last week - Clint Bowyer was 13th while Jeff Burton was a distant 26th on the cumulative chart; this is one area where the speeds may portend something later, as RCR made big horsepower gains in 2006 with the hiring of Cosworth engine builders.
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Once the drafting session began everything changed. The Penske Dodges were 1 and 3 while David Reutimann was 7th, the only Toyota in the top 20 in drafting speeds. Elliott Sadler and Juan Montoya were in the top-15 for Dodge while David Stremme was 18th and Kyle Petty a dismal 28th. The RCR Chevys, meanwhile, continued to unimpress with dismal drafting speeds for Clint Bowyer (22nd) and Jeff Burton (30th).
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The real story of testing, however, was that Penske Racing will bring their Spec Cars to Daytona to run a special test to determine gearing for restrictor plate Spec Car races. This comes amid a new PR push by NASCAR for the Spec Car led by Brett Bodine's public Q&A session with fans which didn't appear to address many substantive issues with the car's raceability; one questioner discussed Dale Earnhardt passing 18 cars in the final five laps of the 2000 Autumn 500 and apparantly no mention was made that that came with a roof spoiler package that blasted open a far more effective and consistent draft than is possible with a wing or the basic shape of the Spec Car. It also appears no serious discussion was made about the gapped airdam that makes the car push in dirty air. Bodine for his part parrotted the company line that there will be no reevaluation of the Spec Car after it's run some races, which is impossible to believe given how poorly the car has done in testing.
The drafting session for Daytona testing is due soon, and here we'll get some clue about raceability.
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