Draft speeds rise as teams hone aero package

Dale Jarrett posted the fastest lap in last Sunday's Shootout, running at 188.111mph in the lead draft, but more than a dozen drivers bettered that speed in hazy and cool conditions on the 2.5-mile Florida tri-oval on Tuesday.

With qualifying now completed and the bulk of the '500' field to be set by Thursday's twin 125-mile qualifying races, drivers will concentrate on fine-tuning their cars for the all-important draft. On Tuesday, as many as 20 cars circulated together at times, with the various marques checking how their cars handle when running behind different models of car.

This year, cars at Daytona carry a bigger rear wing and a drag-inducing roof strip to make overtaking easier. The package was successfully used for the first time at Talladega last autumn, but made its Floridian debut for Speedweeks.

Fastest was Mike Skinner, team mate to Dale Earnhardt at Richard Childress Racing. The Californian, who has still to win a Winston Cup race, set a best lap of 189.247mph to just edge out Ricky Craven's PPI Ford (189.191mph).

Top of the Dodges was two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin, who was sixth overall and just 0.079mph quicker than stablemate and '500' pole-sitter Bill Elliott. Elliott, who ran in Sunday's Shootout, is the only Dodge driver to have raced an Intrepid R/T so far, following the marque's return to Winston Cup after an absence of two decades. Dodge is hoping to gain enough drafting experience to get all 10 of its cars into the 43-car '500' field after Thursday's qualifiers.


1 Mike Skinner, Chevrolet, 47.557s, 189.247mph
2 Ricky Craven, Ford, 47.571, 189.191
3 Robert Pressley, Ford, 47.579, 189.159
4 Jeff Burton, Ford, 47.636, 188.933
5 Derrike Cope, Pontiac, 47.653, 188.865
6 Mike Wallace, Ford, 47.654, 188.861
7 Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 47.667, 188.810
8 Bill Elliott, Dodge, 47.687, 188.731
9 Bobby Hamilton, Chevrolet, 47.710, 188.640
10 Kyle Petty, Dodge, 47.763, 188.430

NASCAR and new Winston Cup broadcasters Fox have reached an agreement after the TV giant failed to show sponsor logos on many of the car graphics shown on Sunday's US broadcast of the Bud Shootout. Fox, which is the first TV company ever to be sole broadcaster for the Winston Cup, removed sponsor logos from cars if the sponsor was not buying advertising time during its broadcast. Following a major outcry from teams and sponsors, Fox has agreed to keep all logos on the cars from now on. This never happens in the BTCC...