The first day of NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway consisted of Dale Earnhardt’s return to the driver’s seat, an accident and a Ford leading the field.
Seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt returned his race car for the first time since off-season back surgery. Monday’s test ended Earnhardt’s longest period out of a race car since he began his motorsports career in 1979. Earnhardt has not driven his No. 3 Chevy Monte Carlo since the Nov. 21 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"It feels great to be back in a race car after being out for so long," Earnhardt said. "The 2000 body style is really performing good. We’re going after it to see what we can do."
Earnhardt didn’t turn the fastest time of the day, but did manage a respectable time of approximately 33.3 seconds at 162.162 mph.
The fastest time of the day belonged to Jeremy Mayfield. The driver of the No. 12 Moble 1 Ford Taurus toured the 1.5-mile superspeedway at approximately 166.153 mph (32.5 seconds).
"We’re real happy with the car," Mayfield said. "We know were fast, but we also need to be smart. We didn’t try many long runs, but we didn’t have a true qualifying setup in either. We’ll probably try some longer runs tomorrow."
Other NASCAR Winston Cup drivers who posted fast times during the first day of testing were Dale Earnhardt Jr., (32.7 seconds, 165.137mph), Stacy Compton (32.8 second, 164.643 mph) and Jeff Gordon (33.3 seconds, 162.162 mph).
The only incident of the day occurred when NASCAR Busch Series driver Shane Hall experienced a suspected steering problem and made contact with the inside retaining wall, causing the car to roll several times down the back straightaway.
"I think something broke in the steering and I just started heading straight at the inside wall," Hall said. "The car started flipping, and I don’t remember much after that. I’m pretty sore, but I’m going to try and get back in the other car tomorrow."
Hall received a hairline fracture of the left ankle in the accident. He was treated and released from University Medical Center and returned to the track before the end of the day.
NASCAR Winston West driver Sean Woodside will be on hand to test Halls car Tuesday.
A total of 23 NASCAR teams tested at LVMS Monday. Fifteen of the teams were from the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and eight teams were from the NASCAR Busch Series.
NASCAR Winston Cup drivers who tested today were Chad Little, Ricky Craven, Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr., Mayfield, Ken Schrader, Wally Dallenbach, Kenny Wallace, Dave Blaney, Matt Kenseth, Compton, Jeff Fuller and Derrike Cope.
NASCAR Busch Series drivers testing Monday were Kevin Grubb, Hall, Jay Sauter, Chad Chaffin, Casey Atwood, Gus Wasson, Mike Dillon and Kevin Harvick.
Testing at LVMS will continue through Wednesday. Approximately sixteen more teams are expected to join the test on Tuesday.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK), a leading marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States. SMI owns and operates the following premiere facilities: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sears Point Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway. SMI also provides event food, beverage, and souvenir merchandising services through its Finish Line Events subsidiary, and manufactures and distributes smaller-scale, modified racing cars through its 600 Racing subsidiary.
