Why the testing ban won't have a big impact, more news and notes

Without testing before Daytona 500, A.J. Allmendinger may have a few beginner mistakes. Getty Images

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Another offseason has vanished, seemingly as quickly as a qualification lap at Daytona International Speedway. By the end of this week there will be Sprint Cup cars at Daytona as a new season officially gets underway with Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout and Sunday's run for the Daytona 500 pole.

In past years teams already had a great idea what to expect because they tested more often in January than a pre-med major at John's Hopkins. However, in NASCAR's new era of fiscal responsibility, testing at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks was banned during the offseason, including the annual winter pilgrimage to Daytona in January. So as teams hit the track with Budweiser Shootout teams on Friday and the full Daytona 500 entry list on Saturday, it will be a cram course for the drivers and teams.

But how much does pre-season testing really mean in a race like the Daytona 500, in which positioning in the draft and other circumstances often determines the victor?

For the major teams like Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, parking the cars in January won't matter in the slightest. Those teams have the technical resources to do seven-post testing, chassis-dyno tests and other simulation tests to formulate what should work at Daytona with the current car.

For the teams that are struggling to regain prominence, such as Penske Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and the newly-renamed Richard Petty Motorsports, time on the race track could have been valuable with new drivers such as David Stremme at Penske and A.J. Allmendinger at Petty.

As for the 15 or so new team owners attempting to take advantage of a weak economy and shrinking car counts through team mergers, testing would have been a tremendous benefit. But with limited resources and few cars in their fleet, the risk may have outweighed the potential reward.

Last year, Red Bull Racing showed tremendous improvement after a disastrous initial season in 2007. Jay Frye moved over to guide the team in January 2008, and while testing may have boosted the Red Bull operation, Frye believes the elimination of testing will help teams narrow the gap on the bigger teams.

"I certainly applaud NASCAR for what they've done with the testing," Frye said. "I think it's going to surprise people that the product might be better. I think it might be more competitive if there isn't testing. Obviously, if you have a machine like Hendrick Motorsports, that has four cars and a test team, now they've been slowed down in that program it should help teams like ourselves that have two cars, but have a lot of the same resources, technology-wise and engineering-wise, to catch up."

Ryan Pemberton is the crew chief for Red Bull's Brian Vickers and believes that engineering and research will help teams find an edge without on-track testing. That is why wind tunnel tests and other data could be crucial.

"It lessens, in some respect, because NASCAR has put us in such a box," Pemberton said. "It's not a bad box, they just limit a lot of the things we can do. Our values get smaller and smaller and the things we can change get a diminishing return. The more you go [to the wind tunnel] you learn more, but the value and the things you pick up are smaller and smaller increments. Right now it's about verifying and knowing where we're at. It's more important now than it ever was."

On the other side of the team is rookie Scott Speed, who undoubtedly would have benefited from additional track time in testing. But with veteran crew chief Jimmy Elledge, Speed will have plenty of opportunities to get "up to speed" in the one and a half weeks of activity at Daytona.

As for a veteran driver such as Matt Kenseth, sometimes testing was just a good way to get back on track, but sometimes testing was a waste of time.

"There are certain tracks that are fun to go test at," Kenseth said. "You seem to get a lot out of it. Daytona testing? I don't miss Daytona testing at all. It doesn't get any more boring than that. You go run two laps at a time, wide open. It's just driving.

"It's fun to go to the track and try some new stuff every once in a while in the winter. It's nice to get out of the house, get back on the track, and get back into the swing of things. I miss that a little bit this year."

Darian Grubb is Tony Stewart's crew chief at Stewart-Haas Racing. It's the first time in his Cup career that Stewart will be working with a crew chief other than Greg Zipadelli.

The team tested during the offseason at New Smyrna Speedway, a short track located about 25 miles from Daytona Beach. That track does not host NASCAR events, so it's fair game for teams that want to test -- an obvious loophole in the ban.

But Grubb, who has an engineering degree from Virginia Tech and was a key player at Hendrick Motorsports, has used the offseason to work on other technical programs.

"It's probably been a blessing in disguise on some of those things, because we'll actually be able to spend more time on preparing the cars and getting ready for the season going forward," Grubb said. "That's a little bit of a hindrance not being able to spend time on the racetrack with Tony, and Ryan [Newman, the team's other driver], and on that communication and making gains on being able to talk to each other once we get to Daytona. But we've had enough meetings and done enough talking and enough things together to know each other's personalities and get to the racetrack and go put our tires to the ground and win some races. But the offseason has been a little bit of a blessing for us because we're able to spend a little more time preparing and getting things changed over, and starting a whole new scheme here."

Newman is the defending Daytona 500 winner -- his last victory at Penske Racing. The driver from South Bend, Ind., is preparing for a new start at Stewart-Haas and offered his opinion of testing.

"From a testing standpoint, I say that 99 percent of the testing and all the work gets done here at the shop," Newman said. "That last one percent you prove yourself on the racetrack. And we've had the opportunity to do that in our testing at Rockingham and New Smyrna."

So as NASCAR heads into the 2009 season, the lack of testing probably won't have a discernable impact on the quality or style of racing. Expect the major teams to still be in front while the other teams continue to find a way to close the gap.

The intent of the testing ban wasn't to make the sport more competitive but to save the teams money in a challenging economic world.