Charlotte testing
If you're interested in testing speeds, here ya go. I'll ruin the surprise: Harvick was the fastest in the afternoon session at 180.620, followed by Stewart and Johnson. There's an evening session that I think is going on now.
Here are the real numbers by Dustin Long's count:
5 wrecks
3 spins
Be afraid, be very afraid, in the comments.
Wednesday update: After the jump, the story that appeared in today's paper about Charlotte testing. Sounds like we're back to where we were a year ago - no one's exactly sure what the problem is.
Drivers have difficulty at Lowe’s
By Dustin Long
Staff Writer
Drivers struggled to adapt to a new racing surface at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and a new tire Tuesday, as eight drivers either crashed or spun out in the first six hours of testing. No one was injured.
The track is open for testing today. Every full-time Cup team tested Tuesday except Kasey Kahne’s team because he had not been cleared to drive after his accident Monday at Talladega. He’s expected to be cleared today and test.
Those who crashed Tuesday were Kurt Busch, Joe Nemechek, rookie Brent Sherman and Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Paul Menard. Brian Vickers, Dave Blaney and rookie Denny Hamlin each spun in separate incidents without hitting anything. Tires were not a factor those incidents except Menard’s crash. A team official said a tire rub cut the tire and caused the wreck.
This is one of six NASCAR-sanctioned tests at tracks that host Nextel Cup races. The track hosts the all-star race and the Coca-Cola 600 later this month. Those will be the first races at this track since it was repaved.
Track officials smoothed the racing surface last year but that led to numerous wrecks. The Coca-Cola 600 featured a NASCAR record 22 cautions and lasted more than five hours. More work was done to the track after that race, but the fall event had 15 cautions.
Jimmie Johnson crashed during a Goodyear tire test earlier this spring. Goodyear held a second tire test with a harder compound tire, and NASCAR announced that teams will use a smaller, 14-gallon fuel cell to shorten the fuel window to allow teams to change tires more often.
Drivers said Tuesday the tire Goodyear brought is so hard it doesn’t wear much and drivers predicted teams would do more two-tire and even some no-tire stops during the races.
"Literally, I swear we could run 600 miles on this tire, I don't think we're going to need pit stops, the tires are going to be that durable," Kyle Busch said.
Said Matt Kenseth: "The tire is probably a little bit harder than the race track, so I don't think we’re going to need the small fuel cells, which I guess is a good thing. I don't think we’re going to blow any tires. The track is really nice and I think the racing is going to be fine on it."
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