Nationwide, Truck series teams get more practice time at Daytona
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.
