"It's just good to have that racetrack smell back in your nose," Busch said Thursday.
Except this was different. Busch was at Texas Motor Speedway instead of Daytona and taking part in a Goodyear tire test rather than an open test for Penske Racing.
With NASCAR's new ban on testing at all of its sanctioned tracks, including the traditional "preseason" Daytona 500 testing that usually would be taking place about now, the tire test at Texas provided a now-rare chance to run test laps on a track where Sprint Cup races will be held.
"This is a serious day. ... With us being able to get out here on a track we race on with the potential tire we'll use in April, it's a vital day," Busch said. "We're ecstatic that we're here at a track testing. I felt like I was flying to Daytona this morning."
The testing ban is a cost-cutting measure designed to help teams save millions of dollars this season, when a tough economy has tightened budgets and made sponsorship money extremely difficult for teams to find.
David Reutimann, who drives the primary car for Michael Waltrip Racing, said sponsorship for his car is lined up for only half the season.
"It's definitely a tough situation," Reutimann said.
Despite the lack of sponsorship, Reutimann is confident that he will be able to run a full season and that limits on testing help ease some of the financial burden.
"Put a couple of one-race deals together, we'll be fine," Reutimann said. "If we can win a bunch of races, we'll even be better yet. It gives you more incentive to go out and try to win some races, not that you actually need any. ... I don't want to go out there with a race car with nothing on it."
Busch, Reutimann, Jeff Burton and Travis Kvapil participated in the Texas test, the first official session this season for Goodyear and likely the only NASCAR test of any kind on the 11/2-mile high-banked track that will host two Cup races this season.
Burton kept testing even though he felt too ill to talk to reporters.
While Busch knows he's fortunate to be part of Penske Racing with sponsorship from major corporations and Burton is with Childress Racing, Reutimann and Kvapil -- who finished 22nd and 23rd, respectively, in the Cup standings last year -- are with teams scrambling for money.
"We had 16 or 17 sponsors on the car through (last year) and kept it pieced together," Kvapil said. "We felt like we had a pretty good season, or a decent season, and hoped with the relationships we built last year, we would be able to get some deals on the car for '09. It's been tough."
The test session was the first time Kvapil was back in a car since his career-best seventh-place finish at Homestead to end last season for underfunded Yates Racing. Kvapil doesn't yet have a primary sponsor lined up for the 2009 opener at Daytona.
Kvapil said some small deals have been put together, and other sponsors have expressed interested in being involved, but "nobody wants to make a decision. Nobody wants to make that commitment."
Still, Kvapil said the team is better position that it was to start last season.
"Last year at this time, we had absolutely zero sponsors, and not getting any return calls," he said. "A lot has changed in a year for us. Hopefully we'll go out and run competitively early and it will come together like it did for us last year."
As for testing, without being able to go to NASCAR sanctioned tracks, including facilities that host the low-level Camping World East and West series, Sprint Cup teams will have to look for other options.
Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas; Walt Disney World Speedway and Rockingham, N.C., a former Cup track, are such possibilities.
"You're going to see us clawing and scratching, trying to get somewhere to get track data. That's the only way to stay on top," said Busch, who was part of a "brainstorming" session with Roger Penske and other team officials this week to discuss such options.
"You do look for other avenues," Kvapil said. "Those places are definitely going to get some use."
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