NASCAR announces new points system

NASCAR officials announced a new point system for the 2011 season along with changes to the way drivers qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup plus a number of rule adjustments.

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said on Wednesday that drivers in all NASCAR national series will be awarded points on a 43 to 1 scale with one-point decreases, giving a complete overhaul to the points allocation that had been in place for NASCAR since 1975.

France stated the change is based on having a more simple system that is easier to understand and apply, although it is also expected to to keep gaps tighter than in the past.

"Many of our most loyal fans don't fully understand the points system we have used to date," said France, referencing the system that has been in use since 1975. "So, we are simplifying the points system to one that is much easier to understand. Conceptually, it is comparable to our previous system, but it is easier to follow."

A new bonus points system was also announced to reward drivers winning races. A driver claiming victory will get three bonus points, one more will be given for leading a lap and another one for leading the most laps, which means a winner can claim a maximum of 48 points.

Adjustments have also been made to the way the Chase format is set for the final ten races. The top 10 in the points during the regular season will automatically become title contenders, while two additional spots will be given to those winning the most races who aren't already qualified.

If there are no race winners outside the top 10 after race 26, the final two slots in the Chase will be determined by the point standings.

Points for those in the Chase will now be reset to 2000 plus three bonus per win, although 11th and 12th places will not get the benefit of the bonus.

Under this format, last year's Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 winner Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray would have been in the Chase, while Richard Childress' Clint Bowyer would have missed it.

"The fans tell us that winning matters the most with them, so we're combining the tradition of consistency in our sport with the excitement that comes along with winning," said France.

"This makes every race count leading into the 26th race of the season at Richmond, when we set the field for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup."

Minor tweaks were also revealed for qualifying, the order not being determined by a draw anymore, instead by speeds from practice. If qualifying gets rained out, practice speeds will also be used to set the field, while If no practice or qualifying are run, then the owner standings determine the starting grid.

France also confirmed that NASCAR drivers competing in more than one national series can only contend for one championship, putting Cup regulars out of the title equation in the Nationwide and Truck series.

Officials also announced that tyre allocation for practice and qualifying will be decreased from six to five sets of tyres. Four of those sets will be returned to Goodyear in order to receive their tyres for the race.

Self-ventilated dumps cans will also be implemented for the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, after successfully being tested in the trucks last year. This will eliminate the need for a catch-can man, decreasing the number of "over-the-wall" crew members from seven to six.

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Hamlin tops day two at Daytona

Denny Hamlin was fastest in Friday's rain-affected NASCAR practice session at Daytona, where most teams continued to focus on single-car testing, avoiding running in the draft.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver, runner-up in the 2010 Sprint Cup series, was one of only 12 drivers who attempted running in the draft, although most of his slipstream mileage came in a two-car breakaway with his team-mates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.

Hamlin set a fastest lap of 45.716 seconds at an average speed of 196.868 mph, which improved on Thursday's top speeds set by the Michael Waltrip Racing duo of David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr.

Tony Stewart was second-fastest, also lapping in the 196mph range, and was followed on the timesheets by the Toyota of Logano, the Penske Dodge of Brad Keselowski and the Red Bull Camry of Brian Vickers, the latter completing the most laps of any driver during the day.

Once again the Earnhardt Childress Racing-powered Chevrolets showed great speed, with Richard Childress' Clint Bowyer and the Earnhardt Ganassi duo of Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya being fastest among those focusing on single-car runs only.

Practice was delayed due to overnight and morning rain and it was after 1pm track before conditions allowed drivers to go on the track. The session was initially scheduled to run until 5pm but officials extended running to 6pm.

Although testing is scheduled until Saturday afternoon, many teams have already packed up to return to North Carolina, having completed their programme during the first two days.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, who was sixth-fastest of those running in the draft on Friday, will not be testing on the final day, and nor will his team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr, who has family commitments on Saturday.

Following Saturday's sessions, teams will return to Daytona during the second week of February for the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500.

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Stewart laments incident in Australia

Tony Stewart has expressed his regret at getting into an off-track incident in Australia last week, while competing in a sprint car event at Sydney Speedway.

The two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion was reportedly questioned by local police last Saturday after having a physical altercation with track co-owner Bret Morris following a dispute over safety conditions at the track, which was affected by heavy rain.

Stewart, who returned to the US last weekend, confirmed on Thursday at Daytona that he was involved in the confrontation and then questioned by the police over the incident.

"There was an altercation at the racetrack," said Stewart. "It was a dispute between myself and one of the owners of the facility. But as it also reported, we went down to the police station, we gave them a statement. They told us after the statement that we were free to go back to the hotel room and free to get on the plane the next day. But definitely wasn't the way I wanted to end my trip.

"We had a fun trip over there. Obviously there was a lot of flooding and raining while we were there, but at the same time we still had a good race trip over there and didn't end that last night the way we wanted to by any means. But it's not uncommon to see drivers and track owners have disputes over what's going on, but this one went a little bit further than a normal dispute."

Although the issue has reportedly not yet been closed by police in New South Wales, Stewart shrugged off any concerns about it possibly going any further.

"I'm not concerned about it," Stewart said. "If there is and we have to go back, we'll deal with it. But it's nothing that we're concerned with at this point. Like I said, when they were done with us, they said we were able to go back to the hotel and were able get on our flight and come back.

"I made sure that they knew exactly where we were staying, when our flight was, what the flight number was and how to get hold of us the whole time. We'll deal with it if anything else comes about."

Stewart, also a team and track owner in the US, has previously been involved in other off-track altercations, shoving a journalist at a NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Indianapolis in 2002 and more recently pushing a USAC official at an event where his team was competing in 2008.

"Well, I'm definitely not proud of what happened, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have dealt with it much different," said an apologetic Stewart about last week's incident.

"Like I said, this isn't something that I've blown off. I've lost a lot of sleep over it because I'm very embarrassed that I made it through a whole trip and the night before I come home I get in an altercation with somebody, and that really hasn't happened for a while.

"I'm not at all the least bit proud of it. I'm ashamed about it, but at the same time it's been nice to get back with the team and it's nice to come down here and worry about driving the racecar again.

"And it's not that it's making me forget about it, but it's at least getting my mind off it enough to relax."

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NASCAR confirms points change talks

NASCAR president Mike Helton has confirmed that changes to a new simpler points system could be announced over the coming days.

Helton said that a possible new points system is currently being discussed by officials, as NASCAR looks set to change the current one which has been in place since 1975. No updates on possible changes to the play-off format were discussed by Helton, though.

"Where we're at today is we're in the middle of the conversations, asking or actually telling our competitors where our mind is," Helton said.

"The goal has been for several years to have a more simple points system. If you look at all motorsports and even other sports as well, at times it's complicated, and even for us, we have occasionally to go to the rulebook and look at what position got what points.

"The goal for some time has been to create a points system that is easy to understand, easy to explain, easy to be talked about but also be credible at the end of the season.

"So it's a function of taking the current one that establishes the criteria for credibility, because of the length and the time we've used it more than anything, and come up with one that you can sit down and have a conversation with someone and say 'what do you think about this' and them say 'well that's pretty simple.'"

Helton said NASCAR is pondering different ways of rewarding race winners more through bonus points. The changes in the points system being studied would apply to all NASCAR national series if put into effect.

"Our goal was to make it simple, so we start there," said Helton. "I think we have a model or actually several that accomplish that. But we get to the one that makes it simple. We can continue enhancing the attention and the appetite to win by bonus points and how we apply those to a basic simple structure to start with.

"We can also do things with the events themselves, the field that goes into the Chase, the Chase events to continue to encourage and put appetite on winning races, but the points models start off with a simple system. We can accomplish the attention to winning with bonus points and other pieces."

Helton also confirmed drivers competing in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series may only contend for one championship, which prevents most Cup regulars from winning the title in the second-tier series. For the past five years, drivers from NASCAR's top series have won the Nationwide title.

NASCAR's vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said the possible implementation of fuel injection is progressing well, but there are no plans to race with the system in 2011.

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Elliott to drive for Phoenix in 2011

Former NASCAR champion and two-time Daytona 500 winner Bill Elliott will contest at least 18 Sprint Cup races with the Phoenix Racing team this year.

The 1988 title-winner has only raced part-time since 2004, contesting around a dozen Cup rounds per season in recent years, but will ramp up his schedule in 2011 as he drives for a Chevrolet team for the first time in his 35-year career.

"This may well be my last really good chance as a driver," Elliott said. "I'm going to give it my best shot. I feel like I'm still in good shape, and I thought we ran pretty good last year."

Team boss James Finch is confident that 55-year-old Elliott can be a frontrunner this season.

"It's big for us and big for Chevrolet to get Bill Elliott," Finch said. "With the right equipment, he's ready. He was just a couple of hundredths of a second off the pole at Homestead last year."

Phoenix won its first race with Brad Keselowski at Talladega in 2009 but had a difficult 2010 campaign with a number of drivers. Elliott expects Phoenix's 2011 package - which includes Hendrick-prepared engines - to be very competitive.

"I think this will be a really good deal," said Elliott. "James has really good racecars, and there's no doubt about the Hendrick equipment. After all, look at all the championships they've won."

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Waltrip Toyotas top drafting session

The Michael Waltrip Racing Toyotas of David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr topped an uneventful Thursday drafting practice session as NASCAR Sprint Cup teams continued to gear up for the Daytona 500.

Reutimann, a two-time winner in the series, set a fastest lap of 45.970 seconds, at an average speed of 195.780 mph, achieved while running in tandem with his MWR team-mate Truex, who was second on the timesheets.

Behind them, Red Bull's returnee Brian Vickers was third-fastest, also achieving his best lap while working in tandem with his team-mate Kasey Kahne.

Stewart Haas' Tony Stewart was fifth, setting his best lap while drafting in single file with both MWR and Red Bull cars in a five-car group, the biggest seen during the four-hour session. However, his best lap was over a second slower than what the top four managed after splitting into two-car team formations.

Despite much anticipation to the afternoon session, few drivers ventured on the track to draft and figure out the effect of the new, smoother Daytona asphalt, which proved to allow more bump-drafting than in the past.

"It looked like a lot of guys were just working on a lot of stuff today so maybe they're going to be focused on drafting tomorrow," said Vickers. "I'm sure before we leave you'll see a pretty big pack. I can't imagine you wouldn't because I know pretty much everybody wants to see how the cars react in that situation, the track and all that stuff."

Many drivers and teams continued to focus on single-car runs, hoping to get most of their programmes done before switching to drafting mode. Some rain is forecast for the Daytona area on Friday.

Teams will continue to test until Saturday for the Daytona 500, which takes place on February 20.

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Keselowski fastest on final test day

Brad Keselowski topped the final day of testing at Daytona on Saturday as teams continued to find more speed in preparation for next month's 500-mile NASCAR season-opener at the track.

The Penske driver, using a two-car draft, was able to break into the 198mph bracket reaching an average speed of 198.605 mph, with a lap time of 45.3126 seconds, the fastest seen during the three days of running. His Penske team-mate Kurt Busch was second, lapping in the same tenth and also reaching a similar speed while working in tandem with the Nationwide Series champion.

"It's a completely new breed of racing," said Keselowski about drafting on the new Daytona surface, which offers more grip.

"It will take an intelligent duo to pull it off. From a driver's side, it's similar to a baton relay. If you have the two fastest runners in the world and you put them in a baton relay and they can't exchange, an average Joe that can exchange will beat them.

"As the weekend has progressed, it has become more and more obvious, the thought of there being a big pack - I think we might see an extinction of that here."

The Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin had been fastest in the morning, lapping over 197mph, while Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger became the first Ford driver to test in the draft, working with rookie Steven Wallace to set the fifth and sixth fastest laps of the morning session.

Despite drafting speeds reaching almost 200mph, NASCAR officials did not anticipate any changes being made to the current restrictor plate, which uses holes of 29/32nds of an inch.

Drivers making single-car runs, which continued to be a clear majority, lapped in the 185mph bracket, topped by Roush Fenway's Greg Biffle on Saturday afternoon and followed by the Earnhardt Ganassi duo of Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Sprint Cup director John Darby underlined that many teams focused on testing the two-car breakaway, which some still doubt will yield as much dividend as it has shown in the past at Talladega come race day.

"Obviously the guys are working on the tandem deal knowing that's faster than the draft," Darby said. "Everybody's working on a little different agenda, and it's all trying to find that edge to win the Daytona 500.

"I think this test has done more in building confidence. There's always some anxiety around what happens when a track repaves."

Teams will return to Daytona in the second week of February for the Budweiser Shootout, followed by the Daytona 500 a week later.

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Steve Wallace to enter Daytona 500

NASCAR Nationwide Series regular Steve Wallace will make his Sprint Cup debut next month at Daytona, driving for his father's Rusty Wallace Racing team in the season opener.

The 23-year-old, son of former Cup champion Rusty Wallace, who fields his own team in NASCAR's second-tier series, will make the jump up together with his family's outfit, which will enter the #77 Toyota Camry in the Daytona 500.

Wallace, who has finished in the top 10 in the Nationwide Series points in the past two years, will have his start in the race guaranteed after his team was able to secure a deal to have the 2010 owner points transferred from Penske Racing's #77 car of Sam Hornish Jr, who is not expected to compete for the team in the Cup series this year.

According to NASCAR rules, the top 35 cars in the owner standings from the previous year are automatically guaranteed the start in the first five races of the new season. Penske's #77 was 29th in that ranking at the end of last year.

"Starting my first Daytona 500 is definitely going to be the most exciting day of my career - make that my life - so far," said Wallace. "It's something that every kid wanting to be a racer - including me - dreams of doing one day. It's the some of the best drivers in the world competing in the biggest race in the world.

"As far as the race, my goals are simple: to stay out of trouble, earn all the respect I can from the other guys and make sure [the car] is there at the end of the race. The way restrictor plate racing goes, if we can do that, there's no telling what can happen."

Larry Carter, who was crew chief for his father Rusty on his final appearance in the Daytona 500 in 2005, when he finished 10th for Penske Racing, will be calling the shots from the pitwall for the younger Wallace on his Cup debut.

1989 Cup champion Wallace, who never claimed a Daytona 500 victory despite his 55 wins in the series, believes the new grippy asphalt at the 2.5-mile oval will make it easier for his team to be competitive on its debut as handling will no longer be as large a factor.

"When you're a young driver coming up, you dream about racing in the Daytona 500 and now Steve's going to get the opportunity to do it," said team-owner Wallace. "He's grown by leaps and bounds as a driver in the Nationwide Series over the last few years and we think he's ready for this opportunity.

"We've been looking at this race as an opportunity for a while, because I really believe that the new pavement at Daytona is going to be a great equaliser among the teams. The cars will have a tonne of grip and it's going to make handling a much smaller part of the equation."

Steve Wallace will be the fourth different member of his family to compete in the Daytona 500.

Forlan refuses to rule out moveSteve Wallace to enter Daytona 500

Steve Wallace to enter Daytona 500

NASCAR Nationwide Series regular Steve Wallace will make his Sprint Cup debut next month at Daytona, driving for his father's Rusty Wallace Racing team in the season opener.

The 23-year-old, son of former Cup champion Rusty Wallace, who fields his own team in NASCAR's second-tier series, will make the jump up together with his family's outfit, which will enter the #77 Toyota Camry in the Daytona 500.

Wallace, who has finished in the top 10 in the Nationwide Series points in the past two years, will have his start in the race guaranteed after his team was able to secure a deal to have the 2010 owner points transferred from Penske Racing's #77 car of Sam Hornish Jr, who is not expected to compete for the team in the Cup series this year.

According to NASCAR rules, the top 35 cars in the owner standings from the previous year are automatically guaranteed the start in the first five races of the new season. Penske's #77 was 29th in that ranking at the end of last year.

"Starting my first Daytona 500 is definitely going to be the most exciting day of my career - make that my life - so far," said Wallace. "It's something that every kid wanting to be a racer - including me - dreams of doing one day. It's the some of the best drivers in the world competing in the biggest race in the world.

"As far as the race, my goals are simple: to stay out of trouble, earn all the respect I can from the other guys and make sure [the car] is there at the end of the race. The way restrictor plate racing goes, if we can do that, there's no telling what can happen."

Larry Carter, who was crew chief for his father Rusty on his final appearance in the Daytona 500 in 2005, when he finished 10th for Penske Racing, will be calling the shots from the pitwall for the younger Wallace on his Cup debut.

1989 Cup champion Wallace, who never claimed a Daytona 500 victory despite his 55 wins in the series, believes the new grippy asphalt at the 2.5-mile oval will make it easier for his team to be competitive on its debut as handling will no longer be as large a factor.

"When you're a young driver coming up, you dream about racing in the Daytona 500 and now Steve's going to get the opportunity to do it," said team-owner Wallace. "He's grown by leaps and bounds as a driver in the Nationwide Series over the last few years and we think he's ready for this opportunity.

"We've been looking at this race as an opportunity for a while, because I really believe that the new pavement at Daytona is going to be a great equaliser among the teams. The cars will have a tonne of grip and it's going to make handling a much smaller part of the equation."

Steve Wallace will be the fourth different member of his family to compete in the Daytona 500.

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Bowyer leads first Daytona test

Clint Bowyer topped the timesheets during the first NASCAR Sprint Cup testing session of the year at Daytona on Thursday, as teams kicked off a three-day programme which got their on-track preparation for the season-opener underway.

Richard Childress driver Bowyer set a fastest lap of 48.855 seconds at an average speed of 184.219mph, with Chevrolet Impalas sweeping the top five spots with four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon finishing second best, ahead of Mark Martin and the Earnhardt Ganassi duo of Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya. Reigning Nationwide Series champion Brad Keselowski was sixth in the #2 Penske Dodge.

Drivers and teams focused on single-car qualifying-type runs on the new surface, which continues to show the improved grip and smoothness already evident when a number of cars laid rubber on it for the first time last December during a Goodyear tyre test.

"It's almost identical feeling to what we have at Talladega," said two-time champion Tony Stewart following the session. "Obviously the transitions off [Turns] 2 and 4 are a little more abrupt than what we have at Talladega, but as far as the ride, you literally could hold a cup of coffee with the lid off full and not spill a drop riding around there."

Besides the new nose on the Cup cars, all teams were also running with the new Sunoco Green E15 gasoline, as well as testing the new self-ventilated dump cans that will be used during pitstops this year.

Thirty-three cars completed laps during the session, the caution flags only being displayed for debris on the track.

Teams are set to finish the day with an afternoon drafting session, although many have no plans to run in the pack thus far.

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Stewart laments incident in Australia

Tony Stewart has expressed his regret at getting into an off-track incident in Australia last week, while competing in a sprint car event at Sydney Speedway.

The two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion was reportedly questioned by local police last Saturday after having a physical altercation with track co-owner Bret Morris following a dispute over safety conditions at the track, which was affected by heavy rain.

Stewart, who returned to the US last weekend, confirmed on Thursday at Daytona that he was involved in the confrontation and then questioned by the police over the incident.

"There was an altercation at the racetrack," said Stewart. "It was a dispute between myself and one of the owners of the facility. But as it also reported, we went down to the police station, we gave them a statement. They told us after the statement that we were free to go back to the hotel room and free to get on the plane the next day. But definitely wasn't the way I wanted to end my trip.

"We had a fun trip over there. Obviously there was a lot of flooding and raining while we were there, but at the same time we still had a good race trip over there and didn't end that last night the way we wanted to by any means. But it's not uncommon to see drivers and track owners have disputes over what's going on, but this one went a little bit further than a normal dispute."

Although the issue has reportedly not yet been closed by police in New South Wales, Stewart shrugged off any concerns about it possibly going any further.

"I'm not concerned about it," Stewart said. "If there is and we have to go back, we'll deal with it. But it's nothing that we're concerned with at this point. Like I said, when they were done with us, they said we were able to go back to the hotel and were able get on our flight and come back.

"I made sure that they knew exactly where we were staying, when our flight was, what the flight number was and how to get hold of us the whole time. We'll deal with it if anything else comes about."

Stewart, also a team and track owner in the US, has previously been involved in other off-track altercations, shoving a journalist at a NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Indianapolis in 2002 and more recently pushing a USAC official at an event where his team was competing in 2008.

"Well, I'm definitely not proud of what happened, and if I had to do it all over again, I would have dealt with it much different," said an apologetic Stewart about last week's incident.

"Like I said, this isn't something that I've blown off. I've lost a lot of sleep over it because I'm very embarrassed that I made it through a whole trip and the night before I come home I get in an altercation with somebody, and that really hasn't happened for a while.

"I'm not at all the least bit proud of it. I'm ashamed about it, but at the same time it's been nice to get back with the team and it's nice to come down here and worry about driving the racecar again.

"And it's not that it's making me forget about it, but it's at least getting my mind off it enough to relax."

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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

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

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.

Di Maria clinches Real dealHamlin vows to improve for 2011

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

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.

Di Maria clinches Real dealHamlin vows to improve for 2011