Notebook: Sprint Cup cars fly around smooth Daytona

Notebook: Sprint Cup cars fly around smooth Daytona


DAYTONA BEACH , Fla. —Gone are the bone-jarring bumps in the racing surface.
Gone is the disintegrating asphalt.
How smooth is Daytona International Speedway after a $20-million repaving project that required 33 acres of asphalt and took more than five months to complete?
"As far as the ride, you literally could hold a cup of coffee with the lid off—full—and not spill a drop riding around here," two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart said after single-car runs Thursday morning at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
With the new pavement, the prospects for close side-by-side racing have grown exponentially.
"If everybody decides that they're going to race and try to stay up front and not lay back and try to save their stuff, it's going to be a huge pack," Martin Truex Jr. said. "And it's never going to … it's just never going to separate.
"So it'll be constant three-wide, four-wide. There will be no chance to catch your breath and relax at all."
Truex likened the restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega to games of chance.
"Here and Talladega are some of the funnest races for us as drivers, until you get into a wreck, and then you're (ticked) off until you come back, hoping to finish the next one," Truex said.
"It's a helpless feeling to get crashed out in one of these races, especially when you have a good car, (and) you're running up front. Everybody has a good chance to win these things. It's like gambling. It's just a lot of fun to do it—until you lose."
STEWART 'NOT PROUD' OF ALTERCATION IN AUSTRALIA
It was a calm, even-tempered Tony Stewart who faced reporters at Daytona—a far cry from the angry driver who earned a visit with Australian police after a violent offseason confrontation with a track owner.
According to reports, Stewart, upset with track conditions, hit Sydney Speedway co-owner Brett Morris with his helmet. Morris responded with a punch that, according to witnesses, gave Stewart a black eye. Stewart was questioned by police and allowed to leave.
"There was an altercation at the racetrack," Stewart said during a break in Sprint Cup testing at Daytona. "It was a dispute between myself and one of the owners of the facility. But as it was also reported, we went down to the police station we gave them a statement.
"They told us after we gave them the statement that we were free to go back to the hotel room and free to get on the plane the next day. That definitely wasn't the way I wanted end my trip."
Stewart, who owns Eldora Speedway in Rossburg , Ohio , said the confrontation arose from an ongoing dispute over safety issues at the Australian dirt track, based on how the track was being prepared for competition.
"I'm definitely not proud of what happened, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have dealt with it much different," Stewart said. "But we had been over there for almost five weeks, and we had been dealing with the same problem with the racetrack, so it wasn't something that was just one incident that led up to it."
EARNHARDT VOWS TO KEEP TRYING
New crew chief. New race shop.
Same Dale Earnhardt Jr.—at least in demeanor.
Earnhardt was typically soft-spoken when he fielded questions from reporters after the morning session of Sprint Cup testing at Daytona, but he made it clear that, despite the failures of recent seasons (25th in the standings in 2009 and 21st last year), he's in the sport for the long haul.
With Steve Letarte (late of Jeff Gordon) as his crew chief and a move to the building that houses the cars and crew of reigning five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt has cause for optimism.
"I feel good about the position I'm in now, and I feel pretty confident about it, and I'm looking forward to going into the season and working hard for it," Earnhardt said. "We'll just see how it goes. …
"I want to be in racing for a very long time, and I know that I can drive good enough to run well. You know, I'll stick around until I get it right. It's just eventually going to have to happen."
Proximity to Johnson's operation could have positive effects on Earnhardt, but don't expect Earnhardt to embrace every aspect of Johnson's work ethic.
"You want to go for a run?" Johnson asked Earnhardt when the subject came up.
Earnhardt, waiting in the Daytona media center for his turn at the podium, smiled wryly and shook his head.
BAYNE TO RUN PARTIAL CUP SCHEDULE
Rookie Trevor Bayne will compete in the first five Cup races of the season for Wood Brothers Racing and selected races thereafter, the team announced Thursday.
Bayne, who will run a full Nationwide Series schedule for Roush Fenway Racing, will drive the No. 21 Ford for the Wood Brothers in what the team expects to be a minimum of 17 races.
"It's pretty awesome that the Wood Brothers have the confidence in me to believe I can do it as a rookie," said Bayne, who finished 17th in the No. 21 Ford in his Cup debut at Texas last November.
By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service