NASCAR Cup Series

Effect of testing ban to be seen at Fontana

Published Feb. 20, 2009 6:35 p.m. ET

foxsports

When most of the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams rolled into Auto Club Speedway last February, there were notebooks of data from previous races and testing that figured in to the weekend's strategy.

That won't be the case this time around.

With NASCAR's ban on testing in 2009, the late January pilgrimage to Fontana and Las Vegas was scrapped as a cost-cutting measure.

The ones to watch

Who are the favorites to win at Auto Club Speedway this weekend? Lee Spencer breaks down the field.

While there were several teams at Daytona International Speedway that suffered through tire ills which could have been corrected through testing, competitors had sufficient track time with practices, the Budweiser Shootout and the Gatorade Duels to prepare for the Great American Race.

But what will the action look like this weekend? Jeff Burton doesn't know "what to expect" but he believes with the additional time teams have had to work on the cars that the racing will be "really interesting."

"Some people would have made improvements (after testing) and others would not have made improvements," Burton said. "Until we get to California and really put it out there with our competition, we truly don't know what we have. It's going to have an effect.