Drivers praise new Daytona surface

Sprint Cup series drivers have given their thumbs-up to the new surface at Daytona International Speedway, following the first test since the repaving of the track was completed.

Eighteen teams took to the track during Wednesday and Thursday in a Goodyear tyre test, putting down rubber for the first time on the new dark pavement following the first resurfacing since 1978 and only the second in the track's history.

Driver's consensus was positive on the end result, the track becoming smoother, losing some of its previous bumps and roughness while also gaining a lot of grip. This year's Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray said the new pavement has made the track easier to drive and he also praised Goodyear's job with their tyre selection.

"The amount of steering wheel input required now versus what we had here six months ago is maybe half," said the Earnhardt Ganassi driver. "You're not really having to turn the steering wheel because the car has so much grip.

"We joked around before getting on the track that the tyres were just going to be screaming hot. We made our first 15-lap run. When I saw the tyre sheet, I didn't believe the tyres were so cool, maybe close to 75 degrees less than what we expected. So I don't think you're going to see tyres be an issue."

Veteran Jeff Burton said he expects the new surface to turn Daytona races into more Talladega-like events, having tested in the draft during the two days of running. He also reckons that the chances of seeing more incidents will increase as due to the smoother surface drivers are less afraid of running closer to each other in the draft.

"Everybody is happy with the surface," said the Richard Childress racer. "The tyre combination seems to be really good. It's going to be a Talladega style race for sure versus what we've seen at Daytona. I think it's going to be an exciting Daytona 500. You're going to have to change your mindset a little bit about how to do the Daytona thing. I think it's gone really well.

"...We're, what, 196, 197 (mph), in that range? Pretty consistent. But we're doing it with a smaller restrictor plate than we had here. So it's just going to be doing the same speed, but you're doing it in a completely different way. You don't even think about having to lift unless you're trying to keep from wrecking. In the past it was quite a bit of throttle control to keep your car going around the racetrack.

"Same speed, but basically it's governed by the restrictor plate."

Teams also ran with the new 2011 nose specification, which sees a different shape for the splitter, getting rid of the metal braces used to support the previously flat surface at the bottom of the front bumper.

A few teams also ran with the new E15 fuel with positive results. A 15/16th's of an inch restrictor was used for the two days of running, which is the same ran at Talladega last fall, while slightly smaller than what was used at Daytona last summer.

"So far, so good. I mean, the plan has come together," said NASCAR's vice president for competition Robin Pemberton. "It's something we've all been working on for not just the paving of five months, but it's been a year of getting our thoughts together.

"We knew we had some updates to the car coming. We have fuel. We have better horsepower now because of the E15.

"There's a lot of things that went into it, along with the tyres and the paving process and everything."

Testing went almost without incident as on Wednesday Roush Fenway's David Ragan and RCR's newly-signed Paul Menard made contact in the tri-oval section.

Teams will return to Daytona for pre-season testing on January 21st and 22nd.

Drivers praise new Daytona surface

Speed released by Red Bull

Scott Speed has been released by Red Bull, leaving the Californian out of a ride in the Sprint Cup series for 2011.

According to Speed's twitter feed, he got a termination letter from Red Bull last week, which he claimed to be "not huge surprise".

He recently completed his second full season at NASCAR's top level, starting his year well and ranking as high as 11th in the points while also leading laps in the first three races.

Later he qualified on the front row at Phoenix but only until July in the series' second visit to Daytona he got his first top-ten finish of the year, crossing the line in tenth place.

After that though, 19th-place finishes at Kansas and Charlotte where his best, dropping to 30th place in the championship by season's end.

The 27-year-old, who became the leading driver for Red Bull's Driver Search in the US back in 2002, will no longer be part of the brand's roster of drivers.

Following success in the junior formulae in Europe, Speed was able to reach Formula 1, first as a test driver for Red Bull, then getting a race seat with Scuderia Toro Rosso on the team's debut season in 2006.

Halfway through his second season, he parted ways with Toro Rosso and landed in the US where he switched to stock car racing, making his debut in the ARCA Series at Talladega in 2007.

He followed that with a part-season in the Truck Series in 2008, where he won at Dover in only his sixth race, while he also claimed four wins in ARCA, all of them on oval tracks.

After making his Sprint Cup debut at Martinsville in 2008 and qualifying on the front row for the season-finale at Homestead, he went on to compete full-time in 2009, scoring a best finish of fifth at Talladega, while failing to qualify three times during the year, notably at the Sears Point road course.

Red Bull Racing team has already announced Kasey Kahne as one of its drivers for 2011, while Brian Vickers is expected to return behind the wheel of the outfit's second entry, following treatment for blood clots he was diagnosed last May, which had sidelined him for the rest of the year.

Kahne to finish 2010 with Red BullNadal set for Mallorca role

Hamlin vows to improve for 2011

NASCAR Sprint Cup runner-up Denny Hamlin believes the 2010 season brought massive improvement to his team, but believes there's plenty of areas where he still has to maximise his potential as he looks forward to challenging for the title again next year.

Hamlin led the championship entering the final race of the season, but an early incident with Roush Fenway's Greg Biffle proved pivotal to his title hopes. Despite recovering later in the race, he was unable to prevent Jimmie Johnson from claiming a fifth consecutive series title.

Leaving aside the disappointment of losing a possible first NASCAR title, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver believes his team made huge strides during the 2010 season.

"I got better as a driver, but we got better overall as a team," said Hamlin. "For me, all I can ask is to show up at a race track any given day and feel like I can win a race, and this year I did that at every track I went to. The flip side of it is to have a championship slip away so close."

The 30-year-old believes his ability and speed to be on a par with Johnson, and reckons that mainly circumstances played into the final outcome of the title battle. At Phoenix, the penultimate race of the season, he seemed on course to his ninth with of the season before fuel strategy became a factor and hampered his chances of arriving at the season finale with a safer points cushion to Johnson.

"I don't feel like we got out-driven," Hamlin said. "I don't feel like Jimmie was just a better driver and that's how he won the championship. The strategy kept us from winning the championship. I did the best that I could, and that's all I could do.

"Phoenix is his best race track and we dominated it until we had to pit. For me, we did a really great job of stepping up to the plate. It's just, unfortunately, our ball hooked foul instead of going fair for a home run in the end."

Hamlin says qualifying and short runs are two areas he has improve looking ahead to 2011, while he also sees plenty of room for improvement within his team on the technical side. As he looks back on his season he says his group can feel proud of what they achieved in their fifth full season together.

"There are several parts of our car and parts of our team that we can improve on, and that's a good thing because of how competitive we are right now," said Hamlin. "I know I need to get better in qualifying. I said that last year at this time. There's lots of things that I could do to be better and there's lots of things we can do as a team to be better. So my focus is what I need to do to execute all of those things.

"I've got to work on my outright speed on the short gos, on restarts," Hamlin said. "Those are the things that I've got to get better at and as a team I'll debrief with them and tell them the things that I feel like our cars need to be better at in the future. I can assure you we're going to hang our heads high because we came close this year. We had a great year - it was just a little short at the end."

Next year Hamlin will return behind the wheel of the #11 JGR Toyota Camry joinning Kyle Busch and Joey Logano in the youngest team line-up in the NASCAR Cup field.

Hamlin aims to rebound at FontanaDi Maria clinches Real deal

Piquet to race for Harvick in Trucks

Nelson Piquet Jr will race full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for former champion team Kevin Harvick Inc in 2011, the Brazilian announced on Monday.

As AUTOSPORT predicted earlier today, Piquet will enter his first full season of racing next year since leaving Formula 1, pushing ahead with his stock car career in the United States after competing in three different series last year and achieving positive results.

Piquet announced that he will drive a Chevrolet Silverado for two-time series champion KHI, a team owned by Sprint Cup series star Kevin Harvick. He is set to enter the 25 points events of 2011, starting the season as a rookie of the year candidate on February 18 at Daytona International Speedway.

KHI won the 2007 and 2009 Truck Series titles with veteran Ron Hornaday at the wheel. Last season the outfit, which fielded two full-time entries, claimed seven victories with four different drivers including three wins from team-owner Harvick. The team also fields a car in the Nationwide Series, where Harvick drove to three victories in 2010.

"It's a great opportunity to be able to race for Kevin Harvick," Piquet said during a press conference on Monday afternoon in Sao Paulo. "I want to become the first Brazilian to do a competitive season in NASCAR. I think it's important to open that door for Brazilians in the United States... It's going to be an interesting season next year.

"I'm looking forward to the first race already. In 2010 I had the opportunity to do some Truck races and I became really passionate for the series. I'm glad to be able to do a full season again in this new chapter of my career in the United States."

Piquet competed in five truck series races in 2010, scoring a sixth-place finish on his debut at Daytona. He also scored top-10 finishes in the ARCA RE/MAX and Nationwide Series, where he drove a few races while finding his feet in stock car racing.

The 25-year-old hopes to take his time to go through the NASCAR rankings in the next few years and eventually reach the Sprint Cup series with the aim of being competitive at the top level.

"I don't know how it will unfold," said Piquet about the NASCAR career that lies ahead of him. "This is a long-term plan. Our idea is to remain in Trucks for two years and after than, depending on my performance, we would move up to Nationwide and then to Cup. But my goal is to get there very well prepared, with a good team that gives me the chance to fight for victories."

Miguel Paludo, who ran four truck races in 2010, will make it two Brazilians competing full-time in the Truck Series in 2011.

Piquet to race for Harvick in TrucksNadal set for Mallorca role

Drivers praise new Daytona surface

Sprint Cup series drivers have given their thumbs-up to the new surface at Daytona International Speedway, following the first test since the repaving of the track was completed.

Eighteen teams took to the track during Wednesday and Thursday in a Goodyear tyre test, putting down rubber for the first time on the new dark pavement following the first resurfacing since 1978 and only the second in the track's history.

Driver's consensus was positive on the end result, the track becoming smoother, losing some of its previous bumps and roughness while also gaining a lot of grip. This year's Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray said the new pavement has made the track easier to drive and he also praised Goodyear's job with their tyre selection.

"The amount of steering wheel input required now versus what we had here six months ago is maybe half," said the Earnhardt Ganassi driver. "You're not really having to turn the steering wheel because the car has so much grip.

"We joked around before getting on the track that the tyres were just going to be screaming hot. We made our first 15-lap run. When I saw the tyre sheet, I didn't believe the tyres were so cool, maybe close to 75 degrees less than what we expected. So I don't think you're going to see tyres be an issue."

Veteran Jeff Burton said he expects the new surface to turn Daytona races into more Talladega-like events, having tested in the draft during the two days of running. He also reckons that the chances of seeing more incidents will increase as due to the smoother surface drivers are less afraid of running closer to each other in the draft.

"Everybody is happy with the surface," said the Richard Childress racer. "The tyre combination seems to be really good. It's going to be a Talladega style race for sure versus what we've seen at Daytona. I think it's going to be an exciting Daytona 500. You're going to have to change your mindset a little bit about how to do the Daytona thing. I think it's gone really well.

"...We're, what, 196, 197 (mph), in that range? Pretty consistent. But we're doing it with a smaller restrictor plate than we had here. So it's just going to be doing the same speed, but you're doing it in a completely different way. You don't even think about having to lift unless you're trying to keep from wrecking. In the past it was quite a bit of throttle control to keep your car going around the racetrack.

"Same speed, but basically it's governed by the restrictor plate."

Teams also ran with the new 2011 nose specification, which sees a different shape for the splitter, getting rid of the metal braces used to support the previously flat surface at the bottom of the front bumper.

A few teams also ran with the new E15 fuel with positive results. A 15/16th's of an inch restrictor was used for the two days of running, which is the same ran at Talladega last fall, while slightly smaller than what was used at Daytona last summer.

"So far, so good. I mean, the plan has come together," said NASCAR's vice president for competition Robin Pemberton. "It's something we've all been working on for not just the paving of five months, but it's been a year of getting our thoughts together.

"We knew we had some updates to the car coming. We have fuel. We have better horsepower now because of the E15.

"There's a lot of things that went into it, along with the tyres and the paving process and everything."

Testing went almost without incident as on Wednesday Roush Fenway's David Ragan and RCR's newly-signed Paul Menard made contact in the tri-oval section.

Teams will return to Daytona for pre-season testing on January 21st and 22nd.

Drivers praise new Daytona surface

Piquet set for full season in Trucks

Nelson Piquet Jr is set to announce a full assault on the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series today, as he continues to move forward with his stock car racing career in the United States.

AUTOSPORT has learned that the Brazilian will compete full-time in NASCAR next year after taking part in a number of outings this season in the Nationwide, ARCA and Truck Series.

Piquet competed in five Truck series events during the year, kicking off with an impressive performance on his debut at Daytona in February where he finished sixth driving for Red Horse Racing. He did four further outings, scoring two more top-10 finishes at Texas and Michigan, while racing a Toyota Tundra for Billy Ballew Motorsports.

In the ARCA series he made his stock car debut in February at Daytona but his highlight came at Texas where he finished ninth after starting from pole position, racing a Toyota Camry for series frontrunner Eddie Sharp Racing.

In August Piquet raced in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide series for the first time, making good use of his road-course experience at Watkins Glen to claim a seventh-place finish at the wheel of a Ford Fusion from Baker Curb Racing.

Piquet will be one of two Brazilians competing in the series next year as his countryman Miguel Paludo, a former Porsche GT3 champion in Brazil, will be driving for Red Horse Racing.

Italian Max Papis, who ran a partial season this year, will also race full-time in trucks in 2011 for Germain Racing, while Indian Narain Karthikeyan is also expected to return after starting nine races this year for Starbeast Motorsports, taking an 11th-place finish at Texas as his best result.

The limited number of outings Piquet did this year in the Trucks will allow him to remain eligible for Rookie of the Year honours in 2011.

In recent years former Formula 1 racers Scott Speed and Jacques Villeneuve have used the Truck series as a stepping stone into NASCAR, Speed actually winning at Dover in his debut year.

Piquet will announce on Monday the team he will be competing for in 2011. His management has held talks with several outfits over the past few months, including some affiliated to well-established Sprint Cup squads.

Piquet set for full season in TrucksNadal set for Mallorca role

Piquet to race for Harvick in Trucks

Nelson Piquet Jr will race full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for former champion team Kevin Harvick Inc in 2011, the Brazilian announced on Monday.

As AUTOSPORT predicted earlier today, Piquet will enter his first full season of racing next year since leaving Formula 1, pushing ahead with his stock car career in the United States after competing in three different series last year and achieving positive results.

Piquet announced that he will drive a Chevrolet Silverado for two-time series champion KHI, a team owned by Sprint Cup series star Kevin Harvick. He is set to enter the 25 points events of 2011, starting the season as a rookie of the year candidate on February 18 at Daytona International Speedway.

KHI won the 2007 and 2009 Truck Series titles with veteran Ron Hornaday at the wheel. Last season the outfit, which fielded two full-time entries, claimed seven victories with four different drivers including three wins from team-owner Harvick. The team also fields a car in the Nationwide Series, where Harvick drove to three victories in 2010.

"It's a great opportunity to be able to race for Kevin Harvick," Piquet said during a press conference on Monday afternoon in Sao Paulo. "I want to become the first Brazilian to do a competitive season in NASCAR. I think it's important to open that door for Brazilians in the United States... It's going to be an interesting season next year.

"I'm looking forward to the first race already. In 2010 I had the opportunity to do some Truck races and I became really passionate for the series. I'm glad to be able to do a full season again in this new chapter of my career in the United States."

Piquet competed in five truck series races in 2010, scoring a sixth-place finish on his debut at Daytona. He also scored top-10 finishes in the ARCA RE/MAX and Nationwide Series, where he drove a few races while finding his feet in stock car racing.

The 25-year-old hopes to take his time to go through the NASCAR rankings in the next few years and eventually reach the Sprint Cup series with the aim of being competitive at the top level.

"I don't know how it will unfold," said Piquet about the NASCAR career that lies ahead of him. "This is a long-term plan. Our idea is to remain in Trucks for two years and after than, depending on my performance, we would move up to Nationwide and then to Cup. But my goal is to get there very well prepared, with a good team that gives me the chance to fight for victories."

Miguel Paludo, who ran four truck races in 2010, will make it two Brazilians competing full-time in the Truck Series in 2011.

Piquet set for full season in TrucksNadal set for Mallorca role