Jamie McMurray topped the speed chart on Tuesday with a lap of
185.720 mph in the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford. However, his lap was slower than
the 186.245 mph mark Elliott Sadler put atop the scoring pylon Monday
evening.
Ryan Newman was second fastest Tuesday evening at 184.856 mph in the
No. 12 Alltel Dodge.
"We spent our time trying a lot of different combinations on the
Alltel Dodge to see what would work," said Newman. "This track changes so
much throughout the course of the day and night that it can be a difficult
track to keep up with. We are trying to use the fact that it changes so much
to our advantage and learn as much as we can about adjusting the car.
"We've done really well in qualifying at Charlotte in the past, and
we would like to continue that when we come back here," Newman added. "We
focused on our qualifying trim some during the night session on Tuesday."
A.J. Allmendinger was third fastest in the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota at
184.571 with Scott Riggs fourth fastest at 184.168 mph in the No. 66b State
Water Heaters Chevrolet. Rookie Patrick Carpentier rounded out the top-five
at 183.955 in the No. 10 Valvoline Dodge.
"I applaud NASCAR for adding this test. These intermediate tracks
make up a large portion of our schedule and unless you are a select number
of teams, you could probably benefit from more track time," said 1995
Coca-Cola 600 winner Bobby Labonte. "There are so many things that we still
need to learn about these cars. Sometimes NASCAR gets a bad rap about not
listening to the teams and competitors. But this was a win for everyone.
"As far as how the car has been performing, I think it has done
well," Labonte added about his No. 43 Cheerios Dodge. "Goodyear brought a
good tire. It's a little on the hard side, but that's OK. The surface is
really coming in since it was paved a few years ago and I think we will see
three good races here this year."
"We have been very pleased with how our No. 19 Dodge has been from
the minute we unloaded," said Elliott Sadler, who topped the speed chart
Monday night. "This is a brand-new car that we built for the 1.5-mile tracks
and I can't even begin to tell you how much better it feels than before. At
one point Monday night, I went out and laid down that fast lap and Rodney
(Childers, team director) asked how I liked the changes. I just chuckled,
that's all I said. He came back saying, 'you liked it that much, huh?'
"The racing hasn't been too great on the 1.5-mile tracks and we
really needed some work as a team, too. I have to applaud NASCAR and 'Humpy'
Wheeler for making this test possible. I just hope this all transfers into
some great racing in the All-Star and Coca-Cola 600 races," Sadler added.
"We are learning some things that will help make us better when we
get to this track," said 2000 Coca-Cola 600 winner Matt Kenseth, driver of
the No. 17 DEWALT Ford. "We didn't have the finishes we would have liked on
some of the other mile-and-half-tracks this season and we want to be as fast
as Kyle (Bush) and those guys at the front."
"With LMS being in our backyard, this test was a no-brainer," said
Kyle Petty, who will drive the No. 45 Coca-Cola Dodge in the Coca-Cola 600.
"For Petty Enterprises, in particular, this helps us continue to get our
test team up and running. This test team is going to be crucial in Petty
Enterprises moving forward and returning to victory lane. We hope that it
will yield better results in the near future, but we're looking more toward
the future with this. This test helps accelerate that process."
Reed Sorenson was also pleased with the performance of his No. 41
Target Dodge.
"We weren't very good at Texas and Atlanta," Sorenson noted. "We
feel like we are a little better now, so we definitely found some stuff. We
now have a much better car than we've had on the mile-and-a-half tracks
earlier in the year."
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