DAYTONA BEACH, FL – On a cloudy and chilly January morning Daytona International Speedway awoke from its winter slumber with a rumble. The first drivers of the newly renamed NASCAR Beano Cup series took to the track for Pre-Season Thunder testing. Only 31 cars showed up for this test date in anticipation of this February’s 51st annual Daytona 500. All manufactures were represented in this test including newcomer to NASCAR racing; Xenos Motorsports. The parity of the COT car was evident in speeds throughout the session as the overall difference between the 1st and 31st car was only slightly over one second.
The top ten times contained a variety of teams as there was no clear front runner. John Pengelley driver of the #16 NOS Energy/Sony Ford Fusion of Scholl Motorsports paced nearly the entire session. Quite literally on his back bumper for nearly the entire session was independent driver Scott Huhn in his #33 Sony Ericsson Chevy Impala. Driver Ritch Garcia commented on how it was ‘suspicious’ that both Sony sponsored cars were near the front.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment over this first testing session was the performance of Flying Underpants Motorsports. While #23-Bryan Kosh had a top ten speed nearly all session the father-son pair of Brad and Jory Fleischauer were found near the entire day. No other team struggled as much through the session as did they.
There will be one more open session before pole qualifying next Monday. Clearly there is no favorite after looking at today’s speed which will bode well for those at the bottom of the standings.
---- Brewster Baker, AP
Session 1 Speeds |
||
|---|---|---|
1) |
16-J Pengelley |
45.407 |
2) |
33-S Huhn |
45.443 |
3) |
53-D Watts |
45.495 |
4) |
46-B Draheim |
45.552 |
5) |
85-M Wells |
45.650 |
6) |
29-M Giguere |
45.770 |
7) |
66-D Foxx |
45.783 |
8) |
23-B Kosh |
45.857 |
9) |
08-S Lewis |
45.867 |
10) |
90- M Lindamood |
45.887 |
Teams Heading Through Turn 1
Session leader #16-John P