Talladega Testing Done: A day after running three- and four-wide in an invitation-only NASCAR test, more than a dozen Winston Cup Series teams remained at Talladega Superspeedway to prepare for Octobers EA SPORTS 500 on Oct. 21. On Monday, NASCAR officials sent 19 Winston Cup teams through the motions during a handful of 20-lap and 15-lap runs. On Tuesday, it was back to the norm for the teams, running test laps individually instead of drafting in packs. Yesterday we ran in packs and it looked like a race, said Kyle Petty, who was testing the #44 Dodge. Today most everything is on an individual run. Most of this is just for qualifying. Still, most of the 17 teams acknowledged the stay-over was well worth it at NASCARs Most Competitive Track. The only two teams from Mondays test not staying for the second round were Dodge drivers #22-Ward Burton and #40-Sterling Marlin. We had a list of things to try … a, b, c … to find speed, said Bryant Frazier, overseeing the 44 teams session. We were finding the attitudes of the car, the performance related to the motor just trying stuff back and forth looking for speed. On Monday we had two or three different packages look good as far as being competitive and putting on a good show for the fans, but they also would give the driver a break every now and then, said Frazier. Petty, who had a couple of top-five finishes at Talladega in the mid-1980s, said many teams were trying to get a leg up after yesterday. Petty also applauded NASCARs efforts over the years. They know the ups and the downs, said Petty. NASCAR has continued to change the rules, continued to adjust, continued to monitor. Thats one of the things we did Monday. We tried three or four different aero packages just to monitor and to see where the cars were headed and give NASCAR some additional information for rules changes that may come six months down the road or may come two years down the road. They are establishing a baseline. Robin Pemberton, crew chief for the #2 Penske Racing Ford team, said he and driver Rusty Wallace were using the time at Talladega to work on other things as well. We havent been here to test in two years, said Pemberton. Were doing chassis things, doing some things with the shocks. Were not messing with the aero package at all, really. Teams participating Tuesday were: #29-Dave Marcis; #9-Bill Elliott; #28-Ricky Rudd, #20-Tony Stewart, #2-Rusty Wallace, #21-Elliott Sadler, #55-Bobby Hamilton, #25-Jerry Nadeau, #15-Michael Waltrip, #43-John Andretti, #44-Kyle Petty, #33-Joe Nemechek; #26-Jimmy Spencer, #66-Todd Bodine, #4-Kevin Lepage, #10-Johnny Benson, and #36-Ken Schrader.(Talladega Superspeedway PR). See past news on the testing at my NASCAR News page(8-28-2001)
