How does January testing work?
January testing in Daytona is split up into two groups. Half of the drivers test for three days one week and then the other half come a different week for three days. Which group you are in is determined by your car owner standings in July the previous year. Every other team in points come together. This allows for a mix of faster and slower teams to test together in two roughly equal groups.
The testing is broken up further as the first two days are qualifying practice. Cars take turns on the track by themselves running two laps and then stopping. The third day is drafting practice as the cars then run in big groups to see how they'll run during the race. There are two sessions each day for a total of 12 practice sessions between the two groups.
Ford Fusion not up to speed
Both groups have completed their testing for 2006 and the data shows that the new Ford Fusion might not qualify well but its race performance is still in doubt.
If we look at the combined qualifying speeds from both groups we see that Jeff Gordon's Chevy leads the pack at 188.466 MPH. The fastest Ford Fusion was Elliott Sadler nearly one full MPH off the pace at 187.594. Matt Kenseth's 186.982 MPH lap was the only other Ford in the top eleven. Clearly the Ford Fusion has some work to do for Daytona qualifying.
Now looking at just the speeds from the two days of drafting practice the picture seems even gloomier. The top Ford Fusion in drafting practice was Dale Jarrett at 189.215 MPH. Unfortunately that lap was only good enough for tenth on the speed chart.
The Bright Spot
Now it's not all doom and gloom for the Blue Oval Brigade. A closer look at the speeds by session reveals that the Ford Fusion lead drafting practice in the morning of both drafting days. In the morning sessions speeds were slower as the late afternoon shadows brought the afternoon speeds up.
Matt Kenseth lead the first groups's morning drafting session with a 188.403 MPH lap. The second group's morning drafting session was headed by Dale Jarrett's 189.215 MPH lap. By contrast Jeff Gordon won group one's PM drafting session at 189.298 MPH and Kyle Busch topped group two's drafting speeds with a blistering 190.251 MPH lap.
Does it matter at Daytona?
Does raw speed matter at a restrictor plate race? I would take you back to Talladega in May of 1997 when Mark Martin won the fastest race in NASCAR history. The 500 mile race ran without a caution. What did Mark say when he got out? "Now I know how people win these things. They have fast cars!" Sure, you need drafting partners to win but speed does matter at a restrictor plate race.
The other important thing to remember is that this is testing. There is no tech inspection to guarantee that everybody is following the rules. The teams definitely do not bring their best engines. And there is always the chance that a fast team is sandbagging a bit so as to not tip their hand.
Is the Ford Fusion the best only when everybody else is slow? Or are the morning sessions more representative of how this car will perform during the 2006 Daytona 500? We'll all find out in just a few weeks when Daytona Speedweeks 2006 gets under way.
