The last of three days of pre-season testing at Dayton International Speedway went off quietly and uneventfully, compared with the big wreck on Friday that wiped out a third of the field.
As a result of crash damage to multiple cars sending several teams home early, only 21 drivers were at work on the 2.5-mile track on Saturday morning. That left two-time
Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth to set the fastest lap before the lunchtime break with a time of 46.377s (194.062mph), nine hundredths of a second faster than 2011
Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne.
Danica Patrick also had a good day of it, putting in the third fastest time of the morning with a lap of 46.476s (193.648mph) ahead of the start of her first fill season in Sprint Cup.
“It has gone better than I expected,” said Patrick, insisting that the credit should go to crew chief Tony Gibson and his team. "I had hoped the car was good, but when you unload and get the car going for the first time on the track, you never know exactly what you're going to get."
Patrick had a short afternoon session, and only 15 drivers took part as others got an early start for home. Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle beat his former team mate Kenseth to the top time after lunch with a lap of 46.169s (194.936mph), while Kenseth's new team mate at Joe Gibbs Racing - Kyle Busch - ended the day with the third fastest time of the day as the #18 was the last car left out on track before the session wrapped. The third JGR driver, Denny Hamlin, only took part in the Thursday sessions as he opted to fly home to be with his girlfriend who is expecting the imminent arrival of the couple's first child.
The fastest time of the three-day test was Bayne's 199.650mph on Friday afternoon before the 12-car wreck interrupted proceedings. That puts the early runs of the new Generation 6 model car significantly slower than the speeds recorded by the old Car of Tomorrow in 2012 which reached 206mph and forced
NASCAR to introduce a flurry of changes to the cars to slow the cars to a safer velocity in time for the
Daytona 500 in February.
On the basis of this pre-season test no such changes should be required before this year's race, and the Gen-6 car also seems to have put a stop to the tandem drafting that had crept in during recent years with the CoT and proved less than popular with fans.
"When it was a couple races old, the coolness wore off of it - it was something that wasn't very normal for us,"
NASCAR vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton admitted about the two-car push-drafting. As for the speeds of the cars: "We're right in the ballpark, and we don't foresee any changes."
Morning session1.
#20 Matt Kenseth Toyota
46.377s (Leader) 194.062mph (27 laps)
2.
#21 Trevor Bayne Ford
46.467s (-0.090s) 193.686mph (14 laps)
3.
#10 Danica Patrick Chevrolet
46.476s (-0.099s) 193.648mph (23 laps)
4.
#27 Paul Menard Chevrolet
46.519s (-0.142s) 193.469mph (21 laps)
5.
#14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet
46.587s (-0.210s) 193.187mph (21 laps)
6.
#33 Austin Dillon Chevrolet
46.613s (-0.236s) 193.079mph (23 laps)
7.
#31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet
46.673s (-0.296s) 192.831mph (21 laps)
8.
#16 Greg Biffle Ford
46.696s (-0.319s) 192.736mph (24 laps)
9.
#18 Kyle Busch Toyota
46.699s (-0.322s) 192.724mph (14 laps)
10.
#42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet
46.717s (-0.340s) 192.649mph (23 laps)
11.
#39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet
46.717s (-0.340s) 192.649mph (8 laps)
12.
#78 Kurt Busch Chevrolet
46.740s (-0.363s) 192.555mph (19 laps)
13.
#29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet
46.868s (-0.491s) 192.029mph (23 laps)
14.
#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet
46.880s (-0.503s) 191.980mph (24 laps)
15.
#48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
46.917s (-0.540s) 191.828mph (24 laps)
16.
#17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford
46.976s (-0.599s) 191.587mph (18 laps)
17.
#99 Carl Edwards Ford
46.978s (-0.601s) 191.579mph (18 laps)
18.
#38 Josh Wise Ford
47.265s (-0.888s) 190.416mph (20 laps)
19.
#13 Casey Mears Ford
47.307s (-0.930s) 190.247mph (27 laps)
20.
#47 Bobby Labonte Toyota
47.670s (-1.293s) 188.798mph (30 laps)
21.
#83 Travis Kvapil/David Reutimann Toyota
48.283s (-1.906s) 186.401mph (23 laps)
Afternoon session1.
#16 Greg Biffle Ford
46.169s (Leader) 194.936mph (23 laps)
2.
#20 Matt Kenseth Toyota
46.221s (-0.052s) 194.717mph (23 laps)
3.
#18 Kyle Busch Toyota
46.254s (-0.085s) 194.578mph (36 laps)
4.
#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet
46.295s (-0.126s) 194.405mph (57 laps)
5.
#42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chevrolet
46.354s (-0.185s) 194.158mph (33 laps)
6.
#39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet
46.372s (-0.203s) 194.083mph (20 laps)
7.
#99 Carl Edwards Ford
46.458s (-0.289s) 193.723mph (24 laps)
8.
#14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet
46.528s (-0.359s) 193.432mph (11 laps)
9.
#10 Danica Patrick Chevrolet
46.529s (-0.360s) 193.428mph (11 laps)
10.
#48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
46.617s (-0.448s) 193.063mph (15 laps)
11.
#21 Trevor Bayne Ford
46.629s (-0.460s) 193.013mph (5 laps)
12.
#13 Casey Mears Ford
46.826s (-0.657s) 192.201mph (11 laps)
13.
#17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford
46.828s (-0.659s) 192.193mph (8 laps)
14.
#38 Josh Wise Ford
47.295s (-1.126s) 190.295mph (27 laps)
15.
#83 Travis Kvapil/David Reutimann Toyota
48.198s (-2.029s) 186.730mph (34 laps)