NASCAR may give teams some help on testing and springs for 2010...is there more to come?

  Once a regular NASCAR Cup tour stop, but no longer, Texas World Speedway -- a two-mile track similar in design to California's Auto Club Speedway and Michigan -- could become a hot testing spot for stock car teams, if owners grind the surface smoother and add soft walls....even though it's more than 1100 miles away from North Carolina race shops. But then, hey, how many tickets does NASCAR sell to races at Texas World? Wouldn't it make more sense to test at tracks where the publicity would help fill the seats? (Photo: TWS)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   LOUDON, N.H.
   At NASCAR's crew chiefs meeting here Saturday morning, Sprint Cup teams were given a few tweaks on the car-of-tomorrow and on testing for 2010, but it's unclear if more might be coming.
   NASCAR officials are apparently leaning toward okaying Greenville-Pickens Speedway for Cup testing next season, to give teams a less expensive testing venue – a track closer to their Mooresville, N.C., shops. But some teams say they would continue flying/driving down to places like New Smyrna in Florida for testing anyway.
   NASCAR banned testing this season at NASCAR tour tracks, ostensibly as a cost-cutting move. However the more well-funded teams have continued testing, flying around the country to whichever tracks they can find that are similar to Cup tracks. Less well-funded teams, however, are essentially left out in the cold.
   One championship crew said if NASCAR really wanted to open up a good testing venue, it could let them all test at Charlotte's Lowe's Motor Speedway, which is only a few miles away from most team shops.
   Marcus Smith, who runs the Charlotte track for his father's Speedway Motorsports, has said teams are welcomed to use the speedway any time for testing, if NASCAR would give the okay.
   NASCAR is also considering letting teams use some different rear springs at Daytona and Talladega, which could either improve handling or speed, depending.
   And teams report that Texas World Speedway (not Texas Motor Speedway, but rather the two-mile Michigan-type oval in College Station, Tex.) may be ground smoother, to eliminate bumps. And if softwalls are installed there, the track could be a good testing venue too, since it's not on the NASCAR tour. Greg Biffle ran a few laps at Texas World in testing earlier this year, but he said at 218 mph, the bumpers and the lack of soft walls, the track was too dangerous.
   If NASCAR opens up testing again, with some regular scheduled mass tests, as it did up till this season, Goodyear says it would be ready to provide each Cup team with 10 sets of tires for two-day tests. A year ago NASCAR was leaning toward opening up testing at Cup tour tracks with more than the usual seven tests, but as the economy declined the sanctioning body opted instead for a ban on testing instead. The ban appears to have hurt some teams, such as the Richard Childress operation, more than others.