The search for speed continued Saturday during the third day of Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway “ among NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers with their race cars still intact. After Fridays 12-car accident during drafting practice sent many teams packing, single-car runs were the order of the day among those who stayed for the duration. On NASCARs part, this years season-opening test was a sharp contrast to that of 2012, when the sanctioning body spent three days tinkering with the superspeedway rules package in an attempt to break up two-car drafts and to scale down speeds that exceeded 206 mph. Even though the Cup series is transitioning to a new Gen-6 race car, the 2013 sessions required little manipulation on NASCARs part. Average lap speeds in the draft topped out at the 199.650 mph achieved Friday afternoon by 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, and NASCAR was comfortable with the results. ‘Were in the ballpark’ said Robin Pemberton, NASCARs vice president of competition. ‘We know the teams will go back, and theyll work and theyll bring a little bit better ‘this and better ‘that.&Were right in the ballpark, and we dont foresee any changes.” Pemberton acknowledged that one consideration in designing the Gen-6 cars was breaking up the tandem racing, which was not a fan favorite. ‘When it was new, it was cool’ Pemberton said of the aggressive two-car push-drafting. ‘When it was a couple races old, the coolness wore off of it. It was something that wasnt very normal for us. If you saw us last year at this time, we left this race track drafting at 206 miles an hour and went back and made rule changes based on trying to minimize the advantage of doing that (tandem drafting) and to minimize the appetite to do that, knowing that “ if it was the fastest way around “ you would do that late in the race to win the race.”( NASCAR Wire Service )
