Nationwide, Truck series teams get more practice time at Daytona
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Monday, January 12, 2009
NASCAR has significantly increased the Speedweeks practice time for participants in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series at Daytona International Speedway.
But NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said Monday that teams should not expect more practice time at other tracks. He said that track schedules sometimes vary year to year and described the Daytona change as a general adjustment.
With NASCAR’s ban on testing at tracks that host Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Camping World Truck races this year, teams in all three series will head to the season-opening event without the benefit of three days of January testing at DIS. When it announced the testing ban last November, NASCAR officials had indicated they would consider giving teams more practice time on race weekends.
That doesn’t appear to be the case for Cup drivers as they have a total only 10 more minutes of practice at Daytona this year.
Nationwide and Truck teams will have more time. Nationwide and Truck teams often practice mostly in draft packs because their races are impound events, while Cup teams practice single-car runs on their opening day.
Nationwide teams will get 110 minutes of practice on the Wednesday prior to their Saturday race at Daytona. That’s a 30-minute increase from a year ago. Their final practice Thursday is 80 minutes – 10 minutes shorter than a year ago.
Truck teams will get two practices totaling 160 minutes on Wednesday this year, compared to just 60 minutes on Wednesday in 2008. Their Thursday practice is 125 minutes, five minutes more than a year ago.
Sprint Cup drivers have virtually the same amount of practice time, with 210 minutes on the day prior to qualifying, 105 minutes on Wednesday, 60 minutes on Friday and 90 minutes on Saturday. The only difference is that the final practice on Saturday was just 80 minutes last year.
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3 responses to "Nationwide, Truck series teams get more practice time at Daytona ". Post a Comment.
Pat Draper said:
Jan 13, 2009 at 2:01 PMI really don't think it makes that much difference to the truck and nationwide series to get more practice in, unless you are a rookie. And the way things are shaping up there won't be very many rookies in any series this season. We will be lucky to see 35 car race in cup and nationwide and less in truck. That is ashame cause the trucks are the stepping stone for nationwide and beyond. And also the truck series is the most exciting to watch and they race the lease amount of races. I told a friend just today that i wouldn't care if there was just 2 cars racing just give me races to watch.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportWerner Boehmert said:
Jan 13, 2009 at 7:56 PMthis is fair enuff because of the inexperience of some drivers on a super speedway...as long as they practice in packs...running single is of no use...
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» Confirm Abuse ReportBernadette Motherway said:
Jan 13, 2009 at 9:48 PMHow is this news, Pockrass?
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