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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Faster Is Better For Gordon At Daytona
Jeff Gordon embraces the accelerated speeds recorded in last week's test at Daytona International Speedway...
Jared Turner  |  Posted January 17, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Jeff Gordon speaks during a press conference last week at Daytona. (Photo: Getty Images)
Known in his early Sprint Cup years as “The Kid,” and “Wonder Boy,” Jeff Gordon has long since abandoned the monikers of his youth.

Now 40 years old, a father of two and bearing shades of gray in his thick sideburns, the four-time champion is revered as an elder statesman of sorts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage.

Make no mistake about it, however: Gordon, elder statesman and all, doesn’t mind going fast. Really fast.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver, fresh off a stout 2011 season, was among seven drivers to eclipse the 205 mph mark in last week’s preseason test at Daytona International Speedway.

Gordon’s No. 24 Chevrolet toured the 2.5-mile Daytona high banks at 205.747, placing him fourth overall at the conclusion of three days of on-track activity.

Gordon’s fast lap came while paired up in a two-car tandem draft with teammate Kasey Kahne but the veteran driver was also among the fastest drivers in single-car runs – perhaps making him an early favorite to win the pole for the Daytona 500.

While testing speeds were elevated considerably from recent outings at the World Center of Racing, NASCAR expects drafting speeds to level out at around 200 mph when teams reconvene back at DIS next month for Speedweeks 2012.

Speeds will likely continue to fluctuate during Speedweeks, however, until NASCAR settles on a final rules package for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26. The sanctioning body made multiple changes to the cars’ aerodynamic packages during the test in an effort to reinstitute the large, multi-car drafts that have been replaced in recent times by the much-maligned two-car tandem.

But Gordon would like to see the speeds stay where they were in testing.

“A lot of things have changed since cars were going airborne here at over 200 miles per hour, and not saying that cars won't still get airborne,” Gordon said, “but I think they've (NASCAR) learned some things that are going to help with it dramatically, and I think that these speeds are more what I feel like this track is capable of and what we should be running here.

Teammates Kasey Kahne (5) and Jeff Gordon (24) draft together in preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
“Not that the fans are going to sit there and go ‘Oh, that car is doing 190 and that car is doing 205.’ I think the racing is going to be a little bit better at those speeds.”

Gordon admits he was initially surprised, however, to find speeds so high at the test.

“I went up to Darby (Sprint Cup Series director John Darby) and said, ‘We can't run these speeds, right? Surely you're going to slow us down because it's embedded in our minds that we can't go over 200 miles per hour out there in race conditions.’ And when I saw their reaction of, ‘No, not so much, we feel like we've learned some things and we're okay with that,’ (I figured that) somehow it's become accepted, and I think that's a good thing.”

Gordon actually wouldn’t mind seeing the cars go even faster at Daytona – at least in qualifying. The winner of 85 Sprint Cup races even went so far as to suggest that NASCAR consider letting teams use a smaller restrictor plate specifically for time trials.

Bill Elliott holds the record for fastest qualifying lap with a restrictor plate – 199.388 mph set in May 1990 at Talladega. The pole speed for last year’s Daytona 500 was 186.089 mph.

The fastest official lap in NASCAR history – 212.809 mph set by Elliott at Talladega in 1987 – came one season before NASCAR mandated restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega. The decision followed Bobby Allison’s horrific crash at Talladega the previous May.

“I wish we were going 20 miles per hour faster for qualifying, and then I wish that we could get it back down to about where we are now (for the Daytona 500),” Gordon said. “I think that would be really cool to just see just how fast we could go. I mean, it's very comfortable, put it that way. It's extremely comfortable.”

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.
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