When Matt Kenseth made the switch to Joe Gibbs Racing, there were a lot of questions being asked. Would he be successful? Could he bring Coach Joe Gibbs a championship? So far, he is off to a good start as Kenseth led the Saturday morning test session at Daytona International Speedway. It marks the second session he has led after leading the first session on Thursday.
It hasn’t fazed Matt Kenseth what car or team he’s driving for. The changing of the calendar year, didn’t make him blink either. For Kenseth, he’s still the man atop the scoring tower at Daytona, this time during testing for the upcoming 2013 season.
Anticipation had been building over the course of testing as everyone wanted to see it - everyone wanted to see the pack hit the track with the new Generation 6 cars. Friday afternoon brought forth a pack of 20 cars that let everyone see what they'd expect with drafting. However, it didn't last long as contact between Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would cause a wreck, collecting a total of 10 cars.
Kurt Busch, who was hired by Furniture Row Racing late in 2012 to run the last 6 races of the season and returns in 2013 to pilot the #78 Furniture Row Chevrolet along with crew chief Todd Berrier.
The Richard Childress Racing fleet of cars had one goal for the morning session on Friday - full-out qualifying mode. They would tape the grill right up, bypass the oil cooler and do all those wonderful things they do just for qualifying. As a result, they led the speed charts with the top two speeds.
After trying out some drafting because he will miss the next couple of days, Denny Hamlin topped the afternoon test chart with a speed of 195.986 mph. Hamlin will miss the next two days to be home with his girlfriend Jordan Fish, who is expecting a baby any day now.
Another day closer to Daytona and another Sprint Cup Series team to preview for 2013. Up on the docket today is the three car operation of Front Row Motorsports which will be fielding cars for drivers David Ragan, David Gilliland, and Josh Wise in 2013. All three drivers ran for the team in 2012
You can make changes, but some things remain the same. That can be said as while this is the first time at Daytona for the Generation 6 cars, defending Daytona 500 Champion Matt Kenseth topped the charts on Thursday morning with a speed of 192.757 mph. Kenseth also had the best 10 lap average.
After finishing 29th in points in 2012, Germain Racing returns in 2013 with no changes to the team. Casey Mears will return as driver of the #13 Geico Ford Fusion with crew chief Robert “Bootie” Barker at the helm once again.
With pre-season testing kicking off in Daytona this week, the time has come to begin previewing the teams that will be running in the Sprint Cup Series in 2013. Since every team has not announced their plans for 2013, we will preview the 14 teams that have announced their 2013 plans.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brandon Jones (second) and Christopher Bell (third) delivered podium finishes to lead Toyota in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Darlington Raceway on Saturday evening.
23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Saturday after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race from Darlington Raceway.
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Solomon Plumbing Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I thought it was really smooth. It looks like Chris is qualified right next to me. I felt like I got all it had. We know the cars are gonna be very difficult to drive and that did not disappoint.”
