Preseason testing reveals little insight into year ahead

	With the Daytona 500 more than a month away, drivers such as Brian Vickers focus more on building a bond with his crew chief, Doug Richert, than in making an impression.

As "Spring Training" dawned on an all-too short Nextel Cup offseason yesterday, 2007 championship contenders were busy strutting their stuff at the top of the speed charts. And just check out some of the names posting the best performances: Tony Raines out front, followed by such challengers as Dave Blaney (third on Day 1 of testing) and ... Mike McLaughlin (fifth).

Mike McLaughlin?

OK, so maybe I was being sarcastic. None of those drivers remotely qualify as superstars on the Nextel Cup circuit: Raines drives for the single-car team Hall of Fame Racing, Blaney hasn't won a Cup race in seven years on tour and McLaughlin isn't even PLANNING on running the Daytona 500. He's simply a testing sub in the No. 20 Chevrolet for two-time champion Tony Stewart, off getting a little rest and relaxation somewhere else.

It's surprising more top drivers don't follow Stewart's lead. While much is typically made about the official "beginning" of preparations for '07, little is revealed through testing about who has the strongest car for racing's version of the Super Bowl next month. Sure, there will be a few teams giving it their all the next two weeks ... the Toyota car owners want to showcase the strength of the Camry in their first public tests against all other manufacturers, and small teams looking for sponsors and respect want to show how high they can rise on the speed charts. But the Jeff Gordons and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s of the world? They'll be busy yawning more than worrying about where they placed by the end of "Preseason Thunder."

As for the handful of teams that have some sort of purpose down in Daytona, the No. 96 team and Raines fall under the "looking for respect" category. After a mediocre first season on the circuit, they're hoping to prove they can be weekly contenders, and the moral victory of landing on top of the speed charts doesn't hurt their cause. However, if you look at recent history, some of the leaders during January testing these last few years aren't exactly household names, and they never ended up that way: Mike Wallace, Mike Skinner, Ken Schrader, Scott Riggs, Randy LaJoie, Boris Said, Johnny Sauter. All of the aformentioned have been at or near the top of the testing charts at Daytona the past few seasons. Did any of these drivers move on to be contenders for an upset win at the 500? Absolutely not ... in fact, some of them didn't even make the race.