NASCAR drivers descended upon Daytona International Speedway Thursday, Dec. 23, testing the surface for the first time since the historic track was completely repaved. Following the rigorous testing, the general consensus among drivers is that the Daytona 500 could provide even more thrills than it has in the past, complete with faster speeds and closer finishes with cars running three-wide at speeds in excess of 200 mph. The track also enhances the possibility of spectaular crashes.

Jamie McMurray, who won last year’s Daytona 500, says the revamped Daytona track will feature “a lot tighter packs than I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s certainly going to be more Talladega-type, really close, restrictor-plate racing,” McMurray said. “You’ve got to hope that you’re going to make it to the end because the odds (of big wrecks) are going to be really good, I’d say.”

This marks the second repaving project Daytona International Speedway has undergone. The first repaving was completed in 1979. With the latest facelift complete before the 2011 Daytona 500, the troublesome bumps in turns two and four have been removed, along with the infamous pothole that suddenly became a factor in last year’s race. Pit Road is now wider in an effort to increase safety measures, and NASCAR officials say the track is a lot smoother, causes less tire wear, is conducive to faster laps, and a near mirror-image of Talladega racing.

Veteran NASCAR drive Bobby Labonte is quick to agree with McMurray’s assessment of DIS.

“It’s going to be more like Talladega,” Labonte said. “It’s going to lend to more pushing, more shoving, more drafting like that. Obviously, that’s going to lend to more things that could happen. Nobody knows that. If you sat here on a Monday and ran a 500-mile race with 43 cars and you did it again Wednesday and again Friday, you’d have three different races probably.”

Eighteen drivers were on hand for the test drive, representing six teams. Among those drivers were Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya. All of the teams used a slightly smaller restrictor plate than the one used at Daytona in 2010. The top spped was recorded at 197.5 mph and, according to Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, NASCAR officials will conduct further evaluation of the results and then made the decision whether or not to make further reductions on the restrictor plate.

“We may need to come down a little bit off of that, which would be like a 64th of an inch or something,” Pemberton said. “We’ll have to go back and talk to the teams and we’ll look at the speeds from the last two days of testing.’

Teams are scheduled to return to DIS for a three-day test in late January.

A preview of the Auto Club 500 at Fontana.

NASCAR’s California roots go pretty deep. The 1951 equivalent of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series was known as Grand National, and they ran 5 races in the Golden State that year.

NASCAR founder Bill France wanted to spread NASCAR from its southern roots to the West Coast. In his words, “From sea to shining sea.”

From 1970 to 1981 NASCAR’s first race of the year was not in Daytona Beach. It was on the road course at Riverside, California.

The 2 drivers with the most momentum from the Daytona 500 are winless at the 2 mile California track. But both Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr are optimistic heading into California.

“It’s much easier to go there after you run good somewhere else,” Dale Earnhardt Jr said. “You know, I look forward to seeing how we are as a team.”

But if history is any indication Jimmie Johnson should have the advantage. Johnson has an average finishing position of 2.8 over the last 3 years at Fontana, with 3 wins.

Auto Club 500Race Facts

The Race: Auto Club 500

The Place:

Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, Calif.

(2-mile oval)

The Date: Sunday, Feb. 21

The Time: 3 p.m. (ET)

Race Distance: 500 miles/250 laps

TV: FOX, 2 p.m. ET

Radio: MRN and Sirius NASCAR Radio

Channel 128. (Local: KFRG-FM,

KVFG-FM, KXFG-FM.)

2009 Polesitter: Brian Vickers

2009 Winner: Matt Kenseth

Pre-race day schedule (all times

local): Friday—Practice, 12-1:30 p.m.

Qualifying, 3:40 Saturday—Practice,

11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and 12:45-1:50.

Some people claim The Brickyard 400 at Indy is one of the biggest races in NASCAR – 2^nd to the Daytona 500. The track carries a lot of prestige – but it’s not a more important race than the 600 at Charlotte or the Southern 500 at Darlington.

The Bristol night race and the July race at Daytona also rank ahead of the Indy race.

Talladega is also more important than Indy.

It’s not that Indy is unimportant to NASCAR – it’s a big deal that NASCAR is racing there. There are just a lot more important races than Indy.

Dale Jr on Indy

As Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kyle Busch prepare for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard the drivers summed up what they thought about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – and what it would mean to get a win there.

“Flat tracks are always the toughest for me,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr. “At the flat tracks, the middle is the toughest part. The corners at Indy are like 90-degree corners. We don’t run on any other track that’s like this, so it’s a real challenge knowing what you need your car to be doing to go fast. It’s fun. It’s a great racetrack. I like it. I enjoy it. But it can be frustrating. It’s really, really hard to pass.”

Earnhardt recalled his first trip to the Brickyard. “Going there the first time and running up front. I started the race in the top 10 and was running with the leaders for a little bit. My dad had this old crazy setup from years ago in his car. I drove it some, and I was like, ‘Man, this thing drives totally different than anything I ever drove before.’ But I was going to stick with what I was driving because it was the talk of the garage — the style, the setup we were running. About 100 laps into the race, we’re running good, and Daddy’s running like 10th. Then with 50 to go, he drove right past me as we got real tight. His old race car — with the tiny sway bar and all these old-school springs — was still turning and rolling through the corner. I thought that was pretty neat.”

Brickyard Tire Issues

Tires are the biggest issues on everyone’s mind as the race approaches. Last year’s race at Indy was a fiasco with NASCAR throwing cautions every 10 laps to allow teams to replace tires that were worn to the cords. “I think Goodyear has gone to test there like six times or more since last season,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr crew chief Lance McGrew. “I believe Jeff was pretty happy. They were able to run 30 green-flag laps without issue, even with a smaller car count where they only take four or five cars to the track. So, hopefully all that tire stuff’s over. It looks really good so far. Jeff doesn’t seem to think there’s going to be any kind of problem. So the more cars that are there, the better that will get.”

Kyle Busch says Indy is Tough

“It’s a very difficult track to master, said Busch. “I’m not even sure that I’ve done it. Just racing the races that I’ve run there, I’ve finished well a couple of times. I think I’ve had a seventh and a 10^th, and a fourth. To me, it has been one of those racetracks that is very unforgiving.  It’s narrow, tight, not a lot of passing goes on there. It’s tough to get your car set up perfectly there, so you have to do what you can to make it the best you can. All four corners being so different, remembering exactly how to drive all four of them, and just trying to be able to be able to qualify up front and to race up front is so important there.”

So where do you think Indy ranks in NASCAR?

When the NASCAR Sprint cup haulers roll into Las Vegas they have a parade right down the Las Vegas Strip. Here’s a video of the 2009 NASCAR Hauler Parade for the Shelby 427 Sprint Cup race.

Now that Dodge has struck up a sponsorship deal with Talladega Superspeedway all the Ford and Chevy track vehicles will have to go – including this 2000 Ford F350 fire and rescue vehicle.

This truck was based in turn one for 3 years as a safety vehicle on race day for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck races.

The truck also made an appearance in the movie Talladega Nights. It was the Fire Rescue Truck that responded when Ricky Bobby crashed.

The truck has also responded to crashes by Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon and countless other drivers caught in “The Big One” at Talladega.

It’s pretty interesting to see the long list of modifications done to this truck to make it suitable for use at Talladega. There are also more pictures. You can see all the details on eBay Motors. You can buy it for $24,900, or make an offer if you want to wheel and deal.

See the truck on eBay

Race teams and fans are keeping a close eye on the weather this weekend. Qualifying may be a challenge, especially for teams out of the top 35.

You’ll be happy to know that the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout passed by Congress and signed by President Bush includes a tiny clause that gives a big fat tax break to racetrack operators that want to build new speedways.

Jay Busbee over at From The Marbles has the scoop on it, but it seems that someone in congress added an amendment to the bill that would allow anyone developing a motor racing speedway to write off their expenses a lot sooner than is typically allowed – can you say tax deductions.

Not that we need any new speedways — we’ve got some perfectly good ones sitting idle right now.

International Speedway Corporation has just given Bruton Smith the equivalent of a bump and run on the last lap at Martinsville.

The Southern 500 will return to Darlington in 2009 – just not on Labor Day weekend.

Darlington officials say they plan to run the race on Mother’s Day weekend. But it’s nice to the speedway and NASCAR acknowledge that three are still are a lot of longtime, loyal fans who don’t want to see stock car racing stray too far from it’s roots.

The track first ran the Southern 500 on September 4, 1950. 75 cars started the race, and it was Johnny Mantz who won the first race on a set of truck tires.

For the next 54 years Darlington would host the Southern 500, until the Labor Day race date was moved to California Speedway in 2005.

Here’s a photo of Herb Thomas and his 1955 Chevrolet in a Southern 500 victory lane on September 5, 1955. Did you notice that there’s no catchfence, just a retaining wall.

ISC owns Darlington Speedway, Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, and 9 other NASCAR tracks – and by the way ISC is headed by James C. France, who is NASCAR CEO Brian France’s uncle and, the son of NASCAR founder Big Bill France.

In a nod to long-time tradition Darlington has decided to bring back the Southern 500 name for its 2009 Sprint Cup race. Darlington first ran the Southern 500 in 1950, but the name disappeared from the race after Jimmie Johnson won the 2004 Mountain Dew Southern 500.

I guess it wasn’t politically correct to call it the Southern 500 any more – besides, the Race was no longer being held on Labor Day weekend. That date was going to California speedway.

So, where does Bruton Smith figure into all this? Bruton owns Atlanta Motor Speedway – and it looks like Atlanta will host the Labor Day race beginning in 2009. Mainly because the temperatures in Southern California that time of year are just a few degrees lower than the face of the sun.

You can bet that Bruton has at least considered naming his new Labor Day weekend race the Southern 500. Now it looks like that won’t happen. After all, there can be only one Southern 500.

I’m just glad it’s back. How about you?

Subscribe to my newsletter.

I’ll let you know when new stories like this are added.

You’ll get racing updates about once a week. We’ll never share your email address with anyone, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy policy