Nextel Cup Series teams are turning laps today at Lowes Motor Speedway testing the newly repaved surface. Several drivers have already had problems including Paul Menard who spun in turn four and flattened the right side of the #15 Menards Chevy. “Something broke in the front end, probably a tie rod is what we’re thinking. Something broke and then she went straight.” Joe Nemechek also spun in turn four and backed the #01 US Army Chevy into the wall. Neither driver was injured. Brian Vickers spun his #25 GMAC Chevy in turn two but didn’t hit anything. #99-Carl Edwards was very impressed with the surface saying “The most noticeable thing is it’s glass smooth. There’s a couple little-bitty bumps but overall it’s very smooth, and they don’t have any lines painted on it. It’s wild, it’s so dark, you know black and there’s no lines, no nothing, it’s hard to get perspective a little bit but it’s gonna be fun.”
More crashes and spinners prior to the dinner break. #2-Kurt Busch hit in the inside of the turn two wall and crunched the right front of the Miller Lite Dodge. #49-Brent Sherman spun between turns three and four and flattened the side of his car. #11-Denny Hamlin spun in turn two but didn’t hit anything. #22-Dave Blaney got too close to the turn four wall and lightly damaged his machine. In the evening session, #1-Martin Truex Jr. wrecked and #25-Vickers spun, no one was injured.(PRN’s Garage Pas Radio Show)
AND Among the drivers testing at the track outside Charlotte are Bill Elliott in the #00 Michael Waltrip Racing Dodge in preparation of his five-race schedule, which will begin July 9 at Chicagoland. Johnny Sauter is testing a #70 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet for possible future races, including the Coca-Cola 600 at LMS.(SceneDaily.com), no speeds reported yet.
AND II Kyle Petty and the #45 Petty Enterprises Dodge team were the sixth fastest at the end of the afternoon session. Petty ran a lap of 30.015 seconds at a speed of 179.910mph. Bobby Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team were the 41st fastest after the afternoon session. Labonte had a fast lap of 30.408 seconds/179.585mph.(Petty Racing/Moore Consulting Group PR)(5-2-2006)
SPEEDS: Sixty-Five cars took to the track in the afternoon session of testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Fastest was #29a-Harvick with a speed of 180.620mph, followed by #20b-Stewart 180.481, #48-Johnson 180.439, #31b-Burton 180.391 and #6b-Martin 180.066. Slowest were #15b-Menard 173.617 and #49-Sherman 174.205
In the Evening session: fastest of 66 cars were #07a-Bowyer at 183.892mph, followed by #11-Hamlin 183.799, #20b-Stewart 183.717, #99b-Edwards 183.705 and #21b-Schrader 183.667. Slowest were #32b-Kvapil 178.147 and #40a-Stremme 178.424. Looks like Kevin Lepage took over the #49 Dodge for the evening session.
See all the speeds from day 1 on my Lowe’s Motor Speedway Testing page.(5-3-2006)
