NASCAR happy with two days of testing at Daytona

The second day of testing the Next Gen car on the Daytona International Speedway bank went as well as the teams could expect – with many cars swapping drivers for the day and a new standings.

NASCAR Cup Series rookie Harrison Burton was the fastest of the day with a lap of 195.304 mph, closely followed by teammate Ford and also Rookie Austin Cindric (195.152 mph) – their speeds reflecting the draft session that they did for much of the day. Cindric’s teammate at Penske, Ryan Blaney, was third (191.898 mph) in a closed session that ended about an hour earlier.

17 drivers on track

Blaney, Ty Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Landon Cassill, Todd Gilliland, Chris Buescher, David Ragan and Tyler Reddick were among 17 drivers who put in laps on Wednesday – swapping seats with teammates in team cars.

NASCAR Vice President of Innovation and Development John Probst spoke to the media after the last day of on-track activity and expressed satisfaction and optimism ahead of the Daytona 500.

“It’s been two long days and I would say we’re really happy with where we scored here. I feel like it was a pretty good sequel to what we did in Atlanta about a week ago. We were able to experience the final package a little more than when we were here at the end of 2021. Pretty happy with where we are at speeds.  »

John Probst

“I think if anyone looked online they saw yesterday’s peloton race was very good. Some of the riders came out and said we were already running hard. You know, there’s no money, points or trophies at stake, so I think when we get back here in February we’ll be ready to put on a really good show.  »

The Next Gen cars will head to Phoenix Raceway for a final test. »