NASCAR drivers completed the two-day tire test on the newly repaved 2.5 mile superspeedway and agree – it’s fast.
Jeff Burton, who drives a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing said: “It's much smoother, has a tremendous amount more grip, but it's still Daytona. They didn't try to change the banking from the bottom to the top, do all that stuff. They just kept Daytona and put pavement on it. I'm glad that's what they did.”
Kurt Busch, who wheels a Dodge for Penske Racing noted “Physically it’s going to be less demanding. Mentally you’re going to have to be that much sharper, that much precise. If you think that you have a hole, you already better be in it because somebody else is going to take it that much quicker. Reaction times are going to have to be that much quicker and there’s going to be bigger consequences with it.”
Jeff Burton added “three-wide is going to be work, four-wide, it’s going to be a wreck.”
Defending Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray added: "They did a really good job, not only on the racetrack, but widening pit road,” he said. “It's really nice to get that little bit of extra room on pit road. Pit road speeds are really fast when you come to [restrictor] plate tracks. Typically we have the smallest brakes on the car that we run all year long, so pit road is also trouble. So the fact they widened that 10 or 12 feet is really nice.”
NASCAR’s vice president of competition, Robin Pemberton was pleased with the first test giving good marks for not only the repaving but the tweaks made to the cars.
“It’s not just been a matter of repaving, but also the new fuel. There were a lot of pretty good, reports from yesterday, and today, all the engine builders were happy,” he said.
NASCAR issued a new nose and Pemberton continued “any time you change aerodynamics there is some work. If you work on the nose you have to tune the engine.”
Further commenting on the speeds he said the restrictor plate will be the same as Talladega. "We may need to come down a little off of that a 64th (of an inch). We’ll look at the speeds. We have some high water marks (such as) 197 mph. All indications are that everything here have hit their marks."
Jeff Burton, who drives a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing said: “It's much smoother, has a tremendous amount more grip, but it's still Daytona. They didn't try to change the banking from the bottom to the top, do all that stuff. They just kept Daytona and put pavement on it. I'm glad that's what they did.”
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| Kurt Busch (Photo: Motorsports Images and Archives) |
Kurt Busch, who wheels a Dodge for Penske Racing noted “Physically it’s going to be less demanding. Mentally you’re going to have to be that much sharper, that much precise. If you think that you have a hole, you already better be in it because somebody else is going to take it that much quicker. Reaction times are going to have to be that much quicker and there’s going to be bigger consequences with it.”
Jeff Burton added “three-wide is going to be work, four-wide, it’s going to be a wreck.”
Defending Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray added: "They did a really good job, not only on the racetrack, but widening pit road,” he said. “It's really nice to get that little bit of extra room on pit road. Pit road speeds are really fast when you come to [restrictor] plate tracks. Typically we have the smallest brakes on the car that we run all year long, so pit road is also trouble. So the fact they widened that 10 or 12 feet is really nice.”
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| David Ragan (Photo: Motorsports Images and Archives) |
NASCAR’s vice president of competition, Robin Pemberton was pleased with the first test giving good marks for not only the repaving but the tweaks made to the cars.
“It’s not just been a matter of repaving, but also the new fuel. There were a lot of pretty good, reports from yesterday, and today, all the engine builders were happy,” he said.
NASCAR issued a new nose and Pemberton continued “any time you change aerodynamics there is some work. If you work on the nose you have to tune the engine.”
Further commenting on the speeds he said the restrictor plate will be the same as Talladega. "We may need to come down a little off of that a 64th (of an inch). We’ll look at the speeds. We have some high water marks (such as) 197 mph. All indications are that everything here have hit their marks."