NASCAR Nationwide teams worked diligently to the find the sweet
spot on the new generation cars during the second day of testing at
Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday.
Following complaints of loose racecars on Tuesday, Kevin
Harvick said his No. 33 Chevrolet Impala felt “drastically
different” in the morning test and posted the third fastest
lap with a speed of 186.170 mph.
“It’s driving pretty good,” Harvick said.
“Still a little bit on the loose side, but that’s
probably a good thing here. No tire issues. We just kind of knew
where we needed to go over night and now they’re running
pretty good.”
Joey Logano ran the fast lap of the morning at 186.227mph,
followed by Landon Cassill, who tested the No. 5 Chevrolet which
will be re-packaged for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the No. 3 Wrangler
Chevrolet.
“I haven’t talked to Junior about it but I
probably should just so he knows the car isn‘t going to drive
like the old one,” said Cassill, who turned a lap of 186.216
mph. “It’s going to have a completely different feel
and it will take time for him to figure it out.”
Reed Sorenson topped the afternoon test session with a lap
of 187.817 mph. Braun Racing crew chief Stewart Cooper said the
organization put a lot of effort into the cars prior to the test.
But most off all, Cooper was proud that one of the Braun cars was
the class of the field among the mega teams at the test.
“All of our cars were really good,” Cooper said
of the Nos. 11, 32 and 38 Toyotas. “We were there among the
Hendricks’ and the Penske’s and Harvick’s of the
world, so that says a lot. It was better than what we expected. We
put a lot of work going into it and everything turned out all
right.
“The cars are still very unstable in traffic but we
kept working on it. It gave us a good direction for when we come
back.”
Sorenson, who has made tremendous gains under the Braun
Racing banner, will attempt to qualify for both the All-Star and
Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup events at Charlotte Motor Speedway this
month.
TRADING PLACES
Erik Darnell warmed up the No. 60 Ford Mustang on Tuesday
before Carl Edwards arrived for the Nationwide test on Wednesday.
Edwards, who enjoys racing a loose car, posted the seventh
fastest lap (185.693 mph) in the morning. The Roush Fenway racer
was impressed with the look of the new cars and NASCAR’s
ability to listen to the concerns in the build of the model between
design characteristics and the delaying the initial roll out.
“The Mustang looks great,” Edwards said.
“I am proud to be driving one. Out there on the racetrack,
they took all the things we complain about like the nose flying off
the corners, not enough grip, things being tight and they fixed it
because these things are screaming loose.
“It’s exciting. It is really difficult right now
to race very close and keep your car going the way you want it to
go. If we can get the balance a little better…hopefully
they‘ll be a little more predictable.”
Edwards shared the overall consensus that teams will have to
tune the cars to get an advantage on the racetrack since NASCAR has
eliminated the ability for teams to tweak on the cars
aerodynamically. Teams will also receive an extra day of testing
when they return for the July 2nd Subway 250.
“We have to go to extremes mechanically to tighten the
car up,” Edwards said. “We will end up with a new
baseline which is far tighter than what was expected.”
BACK HOME AGAIN IN INDIANA
While Danica Patrick is tied up for the month of May at the
Brickyard with her day job — as an IndyCar driver of the
Andretti AutoSport team — she will soon be testing with JR
Motorsports again.
Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. says Patrick will test with the
team June 14 and 15 at the Milwaukee Mile in preparation for New
Hampshire. The team will then move on to Road America where the
series has an open test on July 17th before the debut of the
Bucyrus 200 on June 19th.
NUMBERS GAME
According to Nationwide Series director Joe Balash: 115 NNS
cars have been presented for inspection at the NASCAR Research and
Development Center. Out of the 115 cars, 85 have been certified to
race and of those chassis, 62-percent were previously Sprint Cup
cars which have been modified to Nationwide specifications.
SAY WHAT?
Tony “Pops” Eury Sr.’s impression of the
new race car: You never drove your mama’s station wagon to a
drag race.
