NASCAR considering wide-open testing policy in '09
LOUDON, N.H. – NASCAR has offered to implement a “wide-open” testing policy for the Sprint Cup Series in 2009, series director John Darby said Saturday afternoon.
Darby held a meeting with the Sprint Cup crew chiefs at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and addressed reporters afterward, saying NASCAR offered teams anything from maintaining the current testing policy to going to one with no limits.
Crew chiefs will take his proposal back to their car owners and meet with Darby again in a couple weeks, when they will provide feedback.
Currently, teams can test as much as they want at tracks that do not hold Cup races but can only test at Cup-sanctioned tracks during a select few open test sessions that are voted on by the crew chiefs prior to the season.
“NASCAR is the policy maker, but if there’s one thing that’s really reliant on the teams’ input, it’s what we test, how many times we test and where we test,” Darby said. “In the past, it’s just been a matter of ‘Here, select your race tracks and let’s go.’
“This year, I felt it was time that we just sat down with everybody and said, ‘Look, we’re open to whatever suggestions you have, from leaving our testing policy exactly like it was in ’08 all the way to what I’m going to call wide-open testing: No limits, any week, any track, any time, as many times as you want to go.’ And we’re prepared for either way.”
Darby said there was a “gasp of air” in the room when he unveiled the proposal, as teams feared they would suddenly have to test 38 weeks per year.
But Darby urged them to compare their current testing policy (many teams already test during the majority of the weeks anyway) to what an open testing policy would be like, and figure out if it was truly a major difference.
Darby said Goodyear was “flexible” and could provide all the tires needed for testing if NASCAR implemented a wide-open policy.
He said the proposal will not be put to a vote (“We’re still not a democratic society yet,” he noted) but that NASCAR would closely listen to the teams’ feelings on the subject.
Additionally, Darby insisted the new policy had nothing to do with the struggles of NASCAR’s new car, which has proved tough for teams to handle.
“This piece, honest to God, doesn’t have any relevance to the new car,” he said. “This is something we would have headed toward regardless. Not that what we’re doing today is broken, but testing should be at the needs of the competitors in the garage, and the only way we know what best suits them is ask them.”
One idea Darby ruled out was banning testing completely. That has proven to be too hard to police, he said, and even if NASCAR prohibited teams from testing, a major team could still buy or even build its own track to skirt the rules.
“Us having the absolute ability to say nobody’s going to test, period, is just not realistic,” he said. “So what you try to do is manage a policy that satisfies the needs of the majority of the garage but still isn’t just so insanely crazy that it’s going to put people out of business.”
Darby said the remaining open test for this season, at Charlotte in September, would go on as planned.
