New Nationwide Car Starts Testing in Daytona

The testing of the car which is said to bring the biggest changes in the Nationwide series in years will begin a two day trial today at the Daytona International Speedway, in preparation for the July 2 official race debut at the same track.

The new car, based on the "car of tomorrow" (COT) used in the Cup, will be tested by some 20 teams, with a section of the Turn 4 Oldfield Grandstand open for free spectator access. The tests will be conducted in two sessions each day, a three-hour morning session and a four-hour afternoon session.

The car is similar to the COT car introduced in 2007, with the major differences being the body, shocks and springs. The wheelbase is increased from 105 inches in the current version to 110 inches. The spoiler is the same with the old one, but the front splitter is not adjustable.

"The Daytona test will be the first full-series open test and you'll get to see, really, where you stack up. It's a bit of an unknown. Obviously, we have the Cup notes to lean on, but we're going to go [to Daytona] and make sure they drive good and figure out where exactly we stack up, speed-wise," Roush Fenway Nationwide program manager Ben Leslie said according to NASCAR.

“We’ll see what the cars drive like in the pack,” Kyle Busch told SpeedTV. “I know there’s going to be a lot of work to be done to try to figure out our package. I know when you get limited cars in a pack it’s not quite what you expect it to be with 40 of them out there. So we’ll see how that all goes.”