Dodge, Chevrolet fastest during second test day
By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
January 16, 2002
6:39 PM EST (2339 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Dodge and Chevrolet once again tested fastest at Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday.
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Jeremy Mayfield
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Jeremy Mayfield (Dodge) and Michael Waltrip (Chevrolet) sat at the top of the speed chart when the second day of the test session concluded. Pontiac was mid-pack with Johnny Benson leading the way. Rusty Wallace was the fastest Ford of the day.
Mayfield drove a lap of 183.221 mph (49.121 seconds) in the No. 19 Dodge owned by Ray Evernham. This fast lap was a good way for Mayfield to start things off with his new team.
"This is a great race team and these guys have worked really hard," a happy Mayfield said after testing. "When you go back to the shop and see how they work -- I've never seen so much work going on in one shop.
"We just keep learning every day down here and all three cars of Evernham Motorsports are running real well. These are the same type of cars and one team will learn something about them from another one, and vice versa."
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Johnny Benson was the fastest Pontiac during Wednesday's testing.
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Waltrip led the bow tie brigade in the No. 15 Chevrolet with a speed of 183.102 mph (49.153 seconds). He also led the morning session and picked up some speed in the afternoon to have both of his test cars at the top of the chart.
Atwood, in the No. 7 Dodge, at one point had the fastest lap of the day, but Mayfield knocked him off about 15 minutes before the afternoon session ended. His speed was 183.091 mph (49.156 seconds) around the 2.5-mile, high-banked oval -- good enough for the third-fastest time of the day.
Most teams brought two cars down to Daytona for testing. However, Evernham/Ultra Motorsports put all of their effort into the only car the team had ready for Atwood to test.
"A lot of times it's good to have two cars," Atwood said. "It's good to see which one is faster. Just throwing all this together so quickly, we could only get one car down here. But, it seems to be a pretty good one."
Atwood came to Ultra when Ray Evernham hired Jeremy Mayfield to drive the No. 19 Dodge that Atwood piloted last year. Ultra switched from Ford to Dodge and also switched drivers from Kevin Lepage to Atwood. Ultra then went into a partnership with Evernham, becoming part of the three-car team of Mayfield, Atwood and Bill Elliott.
"It's my first test with these guys and to be that fast is real exciting," Atwood said. "We're going to work hard together. We're all still the same team. We started to click at the end of the last year.
"I'm going to have some good teachers."
The Fords would like to learn what can be done for them in order to pick up some speed. Wallace's lap of 181.452 mph (49.600 seconds) was the fastest Ford, but it was only 12th overall.
Elliott Sadler, in the No. 21 Ford, was 30th on the chart out of 31 teams. He's looking to pick things up and is hoping actual racing conditions help out.
"We're not running as well as we would like," Sadler said. "I'm not going to try and sit here and be political either, but none of the Fords are really running the way we should be running.
All of us are a little bit behind right now and we're trying to gain on it, but I don't think any of us are really happy right now. The thing is, I think this is going to be a good package to race with."
The final test day is Thursday and teams are expected to practice drafting with other cars.
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