January 17

The rain finally let up Sunday afternoon, the sun began to shine and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams finally had a chance to turn testing laps in preparation for the Feb. 18 Florida Dodge Dealers 250 under the lights at Daytona International Speedway.

Ricky Craven, who is making the move to the Craftsman Truck Series in the No. 99 Superchips Ford for Roush Racing, was the first truck to complete a lap at 3:50 p.m

Losing one day was difficult for many teams, but Roush Racing rookie Todd Kluever tokk a philosophical approach.

"I know the guys on the team are really disappointed," Kleuver said. "They wanted to get everything done today and tomorrow and have Monday at the shop.

"I've been waiting my whole life to get here, so I can wait one more day."

Ricky Craven, who is making the move to the Craftsman Truck Series in the No. 99 Superchips Ford for Roush Racing, was the first truck to complete a lap at 3:50 p.m. The session ran into Sunday night and teams are scheduled to continue testing Today.

Ron Hornaday, a two-time champion in the Craftsman Truck Series, was anxious to kick off testing. He'll compete in a full schedule of races as the driver of the No. 6 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc.

Hornaday left the series in 2000 to compete on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series with A.J. Foyt and on the NASCAR Busch Series for Earnhardt and Childress.

He returns to the series this season to rejoin Jack Sprague and Mike Skinner, who came back in 2004 to finish seventh and 11th in NASCAR Craftsman Truck point standings.

“Five years ago, they were asking me where I thought the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was going to go and I told them then that the sky is the limit,” said Hornaday, the series’ all-time winner with 26 victories. “Now, they are asking me after there are 10 years down where it is going to go and my answer is the same."

Hornaday knows that the competition level has increased dramatically since he last raced in the series full time and is ready for the challenge.

"I've been watching the truck series - this is my love," said Hornaday, who has 26 career victories and 13 career poles in the Craftsman Truck Series. "It looks like if you don't win a bunch of races and finish in the top three, you're going to be out of the points hunt. It's just a matter of running hard every week."

"You can probably ride the best rollercoaster and you aren't going to get a more fun ride than in a truck here at Daytona," Hornaday said. "It's the biggest thrill. The track's not wide; now we put a (safer) barrier wall in there and narrow the track up even more and you're going to see four-wide racing here."

Ron Hornaday, a two-time champion in the Craftsman Truck Series, was anxious to kick off testing

The addition of the D3 cylinder head to Ford engines in the Trucks this season has the manufacturer's drivers excited.

"We've been down in horsepower the past couple of years to the other manufacturers, and this is what we need to be more competitive overall," said Ford driver Rick Crawford.

"We haven't tested the new motor yet, and I wish we had it to test a little bit, but I think come Daytona next month they will be ready and we'll have them installed."

Among those testing is Bobby Hamilton, who will have more to do this season that simply defend his 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.

Hamilton, 48, will field four teams in the series this season, including three from his main shop located Mt. Juliet, Tenn.

Hamilton will once again drive the No. 4 Dodge and will have Chase Montgomery driving for the No. 18 team. Rookie Timothy Peters, 24, will drive 11 races in the No. 04, with former Busch and Cup driver Casey Atwood driving three races with the team.

Deborah Renshaw will drive the No. 8 Dodge out of Bobby Hamilton Racing second shop, located in Lebanon, Tenn.

"BHR has been looking for young drivers that fit the mold of our operation," Hamilton said. Peters "has a lot of potential to make great things happen in this sport for our team."

Terry Cook's No. 10 Ford following a wreck in Sunday night's practice session. (Jim Utter/ThatsRacin.com)

David Reutimann was eager to return and start his sophomore year behind the wheel of the No. 17 NTN Bearings Toyota fielded by Darrell Waltrip Motorsports. The 2004 Raybestos Rookie of the Year was impressed by the renovations to his home track.

"It's phenomenal all the work they've done," said Reutimann, a native of Zephyrhills, Fla. "It looks great - the garages - everything. It's definitely a facelift for the place. They've done a great job. The track looks great, just quite a bit more damp than we'd like to see it."

Reutimann said his ninth-place finish in last year's Florida Dodge Dealers 250 under the lights at Daytona gave himself and the team some momentum.

"It was a good way to start off," Reutimann said. "I learned a lot in that race. With a couple laps to go, I thought I was just going to drive out there and pass everybody by myself - I'd just fell out of line and I just thought somebody would go with me and I looked in the mirror and I was the only one out there.

"It was cool under the lights at Daytona - a place that I've been coming to for years. It's neat, the fact that I was here racing and I was supposed to be here. I didn't have to crawl under a fence or over a fence to get in; I was supposed to be here, so that was pretty neat."

Reutimann will have a teammate, Robert Huffman (No. 12 Toyota).

“I’ve never been in a position to have a teammate in any form of racing,” said Reutimann. “It’s always been me and I’ve only had to worry about myself,” he said. “Last year I didn’t really have anyone in the garage to talk to about my truck. I could go around and talk to some other guys but it wasn’t a teammate. It’s much easier talking to someone working out of the same shop as you – who drives for the same team.”

Jack Sprague, Terry Cook and Ted Musgrave were involved in a three-truck wreck late last night.

Cook's No. 10 Ford suffered the worst damage and his ppc Racing team packed up and head back to its shop in the Charlotte area to begin repairs.

While drafting through the tri-oval, Ron Hornaday slowed and Sprague, traveling behind him, slowed to avoid a wreck, but got loose and slid up and into Cook and Musgrave, sending all three toward the wall.

"I checked up to not to hit (Hornaday) and started to ease up the track to give him room to gather his truck back up," Sprague said.

"The next thing I knew I was turning around and headed for a wreck in the wall. If there was someone beside me on the right, I didn't know he was there."

Cook and Musgrave's teams were attempting repairs on their respective trucks late Sunday. The test concludes Monday, running 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern.

Dennis Setzer driving the No. 46 Chevrolet was the fastest during Sunday's test session that featured the drafting sessions. Setzer posted a lap of 189.163 mph in his Chevrolet Silverado.

Jarrett's Daytona experience may prove pivotal
Friendship continues to be of help on the track
by Mike Mulhern
Winston Salem News Journal,January 17

When Dale Jarrett started posting some quick speeds here last week, rivals began rolling their eyes. A man doesn't win three Daytona 500s, as Jarrett has, without developing a few wiles around this tricky track.

It has been quite a while since Jarrett's last tour win, but he knows Daytona, and car owner Robert Yates puts a lot into this event. And if Jarrett can get a hint of the scent, he's dangerous. Consider his Shootout victory last February, in a car that certainly wasn't a dominator. Jarrett knew just where to put it, and he used those wiles brilliantly.

Give him a tougher car, and no wonder rivals are suddenly worried.

"Friendship - that's where it starts," said Jarrett.

Jarrett has another edge too, teammate Elliott Sadler, who has proven extremely loyal in a sport where teammates frequently battle each other harder than they do the rest of the field.

Jarrett and Sadler could well team up here for results like teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip have done the past few years.

"Friendship - that's where it starts," Jarrett said. "I've had teammates for quite a few years now, and maybe some of the interests outside of just this sport weren't a lot the same, so that made it a little more difficult that the only thing you ever talked about were the race cars. Even though that's what we want to do and that's what we do, you can't just totally put yourself in this position every single minute of every single day.

"I talked to Elliott a number of years ago as he started in the Busch series and came to Darlington for his first time. We were testing to try and win the Winston Million at that time. We got in a car, and I took him around and showed him and told him what Harry Gant had done with me a number of years ago.

"We struck up a friendship, and it's carried over. We have a lot of the same interests. We like to play golf. We like to compete in other areas. Both of us are big Tar Heel fans.

"But we enjoy each other's company. Gosh, I probably spend as much time around him as I do with my wife and kids.

"It's nice we have that relationship. We're very open and honest. If he's off testing, I know that by 6 o'clock that evening I'm going to get a phone call from Elliott, and he's going to tell me what they've done, what worked, what didn't work.

"I'm the same way with him when I'm testing. He's the first person I call, to make sure he understands what we did. So we have a good relationship.

"Even though we have a friendship and we have fun away from the track, it's still a pretty serious business for us. We make sure that there's nothing hidden. I can't go back in the two years so far and tell you any time I felt there was something I had to go over in their books and see to find out that he either told me something wrong or failed to tell me something. Because everything has always been right there, and he's told me anything they've done.

"That's the type of open relationship you have to have to make this teammate thing really work well."

Jarrett and Sadler have something else in common, too. They both had to earn their way in this sport. They weren't given anything.

"Some of these young guys that come in, and have all of this fanfare with them and all of these expectations, when it doesn't turn out right, they get down on themselves, and then maybe they're not given as much of an opportunity to develop," Jarrett said. "Elliott is one of those that has persevered through some things. He's worked his way up.

"He didn't get that opportunity in a top-level car right as he came from the Busch series. It's different roads for everybody to come in here, but Elliott has a level head on him and understands these things come in steps.

"He didn't panic whenever he wasn't given a Robert Yates ride right off. He realized he needed some experience, and he used that to his advantage. Others may not be so lucky.

"We may see some come in and don't meet those expectations, and that makes life a little more difficult for them.

"But Elliott has now solidified himself as one of those young drivers that has a chance to win championships."

Jarrett posted the fastest single-lap speed last week, 186.455 mph, before drafting practice.

"The testing has gone well," Jarrett said. "I'm pleased some of the things we've worked extremely hard on with these cars - and we started building them back in September and had them in the wind tunnel quite a bit - might be beneficial. Some of the things from the wind tunnel actually translated into speed on the track. That's always nice. Many times you come here and make change after change after change, and you get across the start-finish line and you look at the timer and you see the same numbers.

"But we've been fortunate to see some gains. So it's been a fun test."

However, Jarrett, like many drivers, is uncomfortable with some aspects of the new garage area. The revamped garage has been the source of controversy, with its big picture windows for fan-viewing into each garage bay.

"It's incredible what's been done here," Jarrett says. "The fans are going to be very impressed. It should be fun and interesting to see how all of this goes.

"It's a great idea they get to look in. The fans are great, and it's a great opportunity for them to see first-hand what takes place in these garages.

"But I'll be honest, I'm not sure I like the opportunity for them to hand stuff in to be autographed, because that is our workplace.

"I have a policy, plain and simple, if I'm in the garage area and it's during practice time, I'm not autographing anything. I hope they understand that.

"That's the only problem I foresee, that someone may get angry. When I'm in there I'm there to work. I might not be driving the car at that time. I'm either thinking about or talking with my crew about things that we need to do.

"But the opportunity to look in and see things that we're doing, that's a great idea. I think that part of it is going to be a lot of fun for them."

ORIGINAL STORY-Winston Salem News Journal