Notebook: 10 drivers hit 200 mph at Daytona

Notebook: 10 drivers hit 200 mph at Daytona


Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Joey Logano and Kyle Busch eclipsed 203 mph in the final Budweiser Shootout practice Friday night at the newly repaved Daytona International Speedway.
Michael Waltrip hit 202 mph in the 1-hour session, which was interrupted for about 10 minutes after a portion of the speedway’s lights went out. Ten drivers ran at least 200 mph.
All of the top speeds came in two-car drafts, and there was no indication from NASCAR immediately following the practice on whether it would change the size of the holes in the restrictor plates to slow the cars for Saturday night’s 75-lap exhibition race. Officials said they would continue to monitor the situation through Saturday's scheduled practice sessions for teams preparing to qualify for the Feb. 20 Daytona 500.
Logano’s top lap speed was 203.087 mph, while Busch went 203.082.
“It’s fine,” Logano said. “This place is smooth and has plenty of grip. Yeah, you’re digging. You’re hauling the mail. It’s cool. They’re racecars—you’re supposed to go fast. … It’s only because of the two-car draft. In the pack, we won’t go nowhere near that fast.”
Waltrip went 202.152, and Bobby Labonte (201.839) and Greg Biffle (200.951) rounded out the top five.
Danica Patrick explains schedule choices
Necessity, rather than track preference, was the biggest factor in determining Danica Patrick’s Nationwide Series schedule for 2011.
The majority of the reasons for going to certain tracks really have to do with the schedule—the IndyCar schedule,” Patrick said Thursday at NASCAR’s media day. “Once the IndyCar season starts, I’m not allowed to do any (NASCAR) races until after the Indy 500, and then it’s only one per month until the IndyCar season’s over with.”
Accordingly, Patrick will race four times—at Daytona, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol—before the March 27 IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla. During the IndyCar season, she’ll compete at Chicagoland (June 4), Daytona (July 1), Montreal (Aug. 20), Richmond (Sept. 9) and Kansas (Oct. 8).
She’ll complete her 12-race program with the final three Nationwide events of the season, at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead.
A dark horse for Daytona? Try Paul Menard
Paul Menard may be new to Richard Childress Racing, but he’s no stranger to the power of Earnhardt-Childress Racing engines—and that could bode well for a strong run in the Feb. 20 Daytona 500.
Menard had ECR power under the hood at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008. In his last two restrictor-plate races with DEI, he won the pole for the July race at Daytona and finished second to Tony Stewart in the October event at Talladega.
Cars with ECR engines won all four plate races on the Sprint Cup schedule last year, and Menard was pleased with the results of January’s full-field test on Daytona’s new asphalt.
“We were pretty happy with the speed we had in testing in our single-car runs,” Menard told Sporting News. “We would like to have gotten a little bit more, but we had a month to go back to the shop and work on the car, so we’ll be better when we unload (for the Daytona 500).
“That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about a whole lot. We will be pretty damn fast when it comes to restrictor-plate racing.”
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service