Fifty eight cars took to the track in the morning session of testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fastest was #8-Earnhardt Jr. with a speed of 177.518mph, followed by #20-Stewart 177.319, #21-Schrader 177.186, #31b-Burton 177.103 and #99b-Edwards 176.599. Slowest were #22-Blaney 133.227 [must had been a problem, one lap only] and #37-Long 167.370. Carl Long is in the #37, not John Andretti as the PR had and Stephen Leicht is a third RYR Ford, the #90.
Afternoon session: 63 cars took to the track in the afternoon session with #7a-Gordon being the fastest at 177.204mph, followed by #21-Schrader 176.963, #4-Wimmer 176.353, #8-Earnhardt Jr. 175.723 and #90-Leicht 175.398. Slowest were: #22-Blaney 168.748 and #70-Sauter 169.632
At least five cars have hit the wall at Indianapolis during day one of testing for the Brickyard 400. In the morning session #40-David Stremme, #34-Chad Chaffin, #17-Matt Kenseth and #14-Sterling Marlin tore up sheet metal. Marlin’s hit was the hardest as his car punched a hole in the turn two wall. Marlin was not injured. He said, “This is the car we ran at Pocono. We made a little change and went back out there and the car never gave a warning…nothing. Got to turn two and it snapped sideways so I don’t know if something was on the track, cut a tire or what. No warning, no nothing. During the afternoon session #16-Greg Biffle brushed the wall. Meanwhile Kenseth has crashed four times in the last 24 hours. Twice during Sunday’s race at Chicagoland Speedway, once on the track during the Indy test and once on his way to the Indy test. His rental car was stopped at a stop light when he was slammed from behind by a student driver. Nobody was hurt. Kenseth said the driver and the instructor wanted to stop and talk with Kenseth about fixing the damage however he needed to get to the track. Kenseth said; “They wanted to fix it but I didn’t care if the bumper was laying on the ground or not. It was a rental. I’d rather pay for it then mess with that.”(PRN’s Garage Pass Radio Show)
BEST Speeds: #8-Earnhardt Jr., 177.518 was the fastest overall of 39 drivers who tested 63 cars, followed by #20-Stewart, #7a-Gordon [fastest in the afternoon session], #21-Schrader and #31b-Burton. Slowest were #70b-Sauter 169.882 and #60a-Said 171.308.
See speeds on my Indy Testing News/Speeds page.(7-10-2006)
