NASCAR Preview: Testing At Daytona|
By: Brett Baldeck

It is hard to believe, but NASCAR is already getting ready for the 2007 season. Testing at Daytona is scheduled to take place all throughout January. Many teams in the Nextel Cup Series are expected to test, including all the new Toyota teams and new teams that formed over the off-season like Jeremy Mayfield, Team Red Bull, and Michael Waltrip Racing.

Testing at Daytona over the past couple of years has actually grown in popularity. Now there is television coverage of the event, and now fans are even invited to Daytona International Speedway to participate in the action. Testing at Daytona this year is probably the most important it has ever been for some teams. This year there are so many new cars and teams, there won't be enough spots for drivers in the Daytona 500. This means testing will be very crucial. If you are not fast in testing and you cannot get your setup to work, then you will have a very rough time of trying to make the Daytona 500.

In testing there is a combination of single car runs, to help test qualifying setups, and multi-car runs, to help get a feel of what your car will do in the draft. I expect that Hendrick Motorsports will shine in single car runs, along with Richard Childress Racing. DEI always seems to struggle when it comes to qualifying runs, but I think they will be pretty fast when it comes to testing in the draft. It is very hard to say how Toyota will fair in testing. They really haven't been on the track with other Nextel Cup Cars, except for the Car Of Tomorrow tests. But the Car Of Tomorrow is not being run at Daytona this year. So basically, this will be the first time we see the Toyota on the track with other cars.

It is sure to be a busy month for the NASCAR teams at Daytona. When testing is over, it will be less than a month until Speedweeks takes place at Daytona. It is hard to believe that we are already getting ready for another great season of NASCAR Racing. It looks like NASCAR is beginning to be a year round sport. But it’s up to the fans to decide if that is a good thing, or bad thing for NASCAR.