Gordon sets early pace

In order to simplify the testing process, Daytona's organisers divide the teams into "odd" and "even" groups, based on final standings in the prior season's points. Thus those in positions 1-3-5 etc. run for the first three-day session this week. The 2-4-6 teams take over Jan 18-20.

There were a couple of surprises at the top of the chart. Boris Said, who will run selected races for MB2 this season, guided his 36B Chevrolet around the 2.5-mile tri-oval in 48.601s to go second quickest in the morning, then backed that up in his A car in the afternoon to go third with 48.663s.

Randy LaJoie, hired just last week to drive for a new team called Mach 1, was second fastest in the afternoon, with a 48.588s.

Jeremy Mayfield gave Dodge's new Charger an encouraging debut by setting the fifth fastest time overall, which he set in the morning when he was only fractionally slower than Gordon

The story of the day was the competitors' reaction to the speedway improvements, which include new garages for Cup and Busch teams, a new entry tunnel in Turn 1, and a four-story building behind victory lane housing the new Daytona 500 Club.

"I'm still lost," said Gordon. "It's definitely a big change when you've been coming here for a long time. You get to where you work your way into these tracks and you have an area where you like to park and you know where your truck is and where your team is.

"Today when I came, I didn't even know if my team was here. I didn't see my car and I was on the wrong side of the garage. But it's really awesome. We've got to work a little bit on the flow of how the cars come in and out of the garage, but this is certainly beautiful."

Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 48.531s, 185.448mph
Randy LaJoie (Chevrolet) 48.588s, 185.448mph
Boris Said (Chevrolet) 48.601s, 185.181mph
Elliott Sadler (Ford) 48.753s, 184.604mph
Greg Biffle (Ford) 48.792s, 184.456mph
Jeremy Mayfield (Dodge) 48.779s, 184.506mph
Kurt Busch (Ford) 48.802s, 184.419mph
Michael Waltrip (Chevrolet) 48.868, 184.170mph
Dale Jarrett (Ford) 48.915s, 183.993mph
Mike Bliss (Chevrolet) 48.947s, 183.872mph