NASCAR drivers comment after the pack racing test at Daytona International Speedway; Rules set
On Tuesday, the NASCAR Cup Series teams entered Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The test was organized by NASCAR to set the rules package ahead of the Daytona 500 with the new spec chassis.
View Daytona practice results below.
Daytona Test: Results
Jan 11 | Jan 12
NASCAR officials have confirmed the rules package for Daytona. That includes an engine-output target of 510 horsepower combined with a 7-inch rear spoiler.
“Now granted, there’s no trophy. There’s no points. There’s no money on the line. So I think the level of intensity when they come back will be ratcheted up significantly,” said John Probst, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Racing Innovation, “but I think that if you look at what the cars were able to do as far as spreading out, grouping back up, moving around, definitely three-wide a couple times, I feel like we’re in a really good spot, put on a pretty good show February here in the 500.”
The cars will return on Wednesday. The test is scheduled to run from 9AM to 5PM.
NASCAR driver comment after Daytona test
Many NASCAR drivers shared their thoughts after the test:
Joey Logano
“It was great. It was intense, that’s probably the right word for it,” said Joey Logano.
“The cars, we don’t have them quite handling the way we want yet. They’re pretty new still to us, if you didn’t know. The bumping and shoving gets the cars moving around a lot. Kurt, myself and Denny and Ricky, we were out there shoving each other pretty hard.”
Logano added, “We were racing like we were coming to the end of the Daytona 500. I don’t know why we do that, but it’s a race. It’s race cars and it’s on a race track, it turns into a race and we race each other.”
Kurt Busch
“We were just trying to go through checklist items,” Kurt Busch said.
“Denny was up front, and our car wouldn’t quite break that threshold and then it was just a matter of drivers connecting their cars and you do that through rhythm, balance and time together. So yeah, we were pushing each other around there tandem, just seeing how it would play out. Lap time picked up a ton.”
Busch added, “It’s just real sketchy when you’re doing it. It’s not as stable as the old car just yet, but these cars, they go through a lot more attitude changes, whether you’re up front, in the back, side-drafting. The car just moves around, and that’s what it’s supposed to do. It makes it tougher on the drivers to try to digest everything that’s going on.”
Denny Hamlin
“We blew up. It started getting a little weak toward the end, but overall I was pretty happy how we drafted today and how the handling of the car was, so overall, pretty good test,” Hamlin said.
“I stayed pretty aggressive,” Hamlin added. “This is pretty much going to be my only practice for the 500, one where it’s kind of freebie. It was 50-50 whether we thought we were going to bring this car back in one piece or not, so we just can’t get that aggressive on race week with our practices.”
Daytona Practice Times
January 11, 2022
Session 1
Pos | Driver | Best Time | Best Speed
1. Harrison Burton
48.843
184.264
2. Austin Cindric
48.844
184.260
3. Joey Logano
48.849
184.241
4. Corey LaJoie
49.944
180.202
5. William Byron
49.954
180.166
6. Denny Hamlin
49.969
180.112
7. Kurt Busch
50.055
179.802
8. Cody Ware
50.274
179.019
9. Erik Jones
50.473
178.313
10. Daniel Suarez
50.529
178.116
11. Brad Keselowski
50.568
177.978
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr
50.839
177.029
13. Michael McDowell
50.914
176.769
14. Jacques Villeneuve
50.930
176.713
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
50.949
176.647
16. Austin Dillon
50.960
176.609
17. Justin Haley
51.033
176.356
18. Timmy Hill
51.144
174.815
Daytona Practice Times
January 11, 2022
Session 2
Pos | Driver | Best Time | Best Speed
1. Austin Cindric
47.214
190.621
2. Joey Logano
47.215
190.617
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr
48.004
187.484
4. Justin Haley
48.042
187.336
5. Kurt Busch
48.210
186.683
6. William Byron
48.334
186.204
7. Daniel Suarez
48.380
186.027
8. Brad Keselowski
48.392
185.981
9. Michael McDowell
48.401
185.947
10. Harrison Burton
48.441
185.793
11. Denny Hamlin
48.454
185.743
12. Jacques Villeneuve
48.638
185.041
13. Cody Ware
49.138
183.158
14. Corey LaJoie
49.891
180.393
15. Austin Dillon
50.447
178.405
16. Erik Jones
50.481
178.285
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
50.673
177.609
18. Timmy Hill
51.144
175.974
