They’ve never competed in a NASCAR Nextel Cup race, and they won’t be racing at Bristol, but three drivers could have an impact on what happens in the series’ first Car of Tomorrow race Sunday. Landon Cassill, 17, graduated last month from high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is a development driver for Hendrick Motorsports. Billy Wease, 20, finished second in his ARCA debut last summer but hasn’t raced a stock car since then for Penske Racing. Kevin Hamlin, 28, has started 15 Busch Series races but none for his current team, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Each driver played a key role in helping his team develop the Car of Tomorrow, which debuts this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. They tested the cars when their more famous Cup teammates couldn’t. They ran mile after mile as crews tried to understand the car. Sometimes the changes worked. Sometimes they didn’t. “We sent him to do the dirty work,” Kurt Busch said of Wease. “We wanted him to run the tires off the car. It was a lot of monotonous work of just lap after lap, session after session. When we jumped in the car, Ryan (Newman) and myself, we were further down the road.” The task for each driver often was the same. The crews had a list of changes — from shocks and springs to adjusting the front splitter and so on — to make. The driver then told them how it made the car handle. Sometimes the driver ran two laps. Sometimes it was five laps. Sometimes it was 20 or more laps at tracks such as Greenville-Pickens in Greenville, S.C., Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., or Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. When the day ended, they often had driven more than 400 miles. Cassill tested alone at Greenville-Pickens in the offseason and then tested with Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears and Kyle Busch at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fla. “It was important for Jeff and I to tell Steve what the car was doing and being accurate about it, especially with a car they haven’t used before,” Cassill said, referring to Gordon’s crew chief, Steve Letarte. “It’s important to have accurate feedback from the driver.(in part from the Roanoke Times)(3-22-2007)
