Homestead Testing

I spent last Monday and Tuesday at the open test for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Testing generally is boring but it can pay huge dividends for the teams.

It has been a year since I have driven a race car but after watching and spotting for the testing at Homestead it feels like it has been 5 years. It seems like everything has changed. The NASCAR testing rules have changed, the tire rules have changed, and the cars have changed. The set ups of the cars are much different now and the technology (data acquisition) is on every car. I was only able to use data acquisition in a couple of times in my driving career.

Being the spotter at the test is the same as the race: I just try to keep the driver in safe positions as all of the teams work on their cars. It is pretty boring but I made the most of it by timing as many of the cars and recording the times so I could learn which cars were better than others.

Testing is a different beast. Everyone is on their on agenda. Some teams are testing for long runs and others are making qualifying runs. There is not much action that you can actually see during testing but you can bet that teams are paying attention to what other teams are trying.

The Homestead test was the last NASCAR scheduled test for the 2006 season. Teams will continue to test at places that do not hold NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races.

Thanks for stopping by to read the “Full Throttle Living” blog.

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