Hamlin fastest in Bristol test

Hamlin's fastest speed from the the morning session - a 122.170 mph lap - stood as the day's best overall.

The Joe Gibbs driver also topped the afternoon session in his Chevrolet Impala SS and finished fourth in the evening one, lapping within a tenth of his morning time of 15.706 seconds.

"It means our team has done a whole lot of homework on this program the last couple of years," Hamlin said.

"This is the first really official test where guys are bringing their race stuff.

"I am pretty happy about where we are standing because not only are we fast, but we are really good on the long runs and that really matters here. I am definitely excited to come back."

NASCAR officials extended the testing schedule for three hours on Wednesday, as rain is forecast for Thusday, meaning that the 52 teams present completing most of their workload on the first day.

Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson finished the day second fastest, setting the quickest lap of the evening session. He turned a speed of 122.007 mph and a best time of 15.727 seconds.

Johnson has never enjoyed good results at the half-mile oval, but it looks like his Hendrick Motorsports team is on top of their Car of Tomorrow programme.

"When we unloaded, I went to the top of the board at first, I asked my guys to take a photograph of the computer monitor," Johnson said.

"Maybe things have slowed down around here, I don't know what it is. We've been strong today.

"I'm excited for this opportunity with the Car of Tomorrow. Chad (Knaus, No. 48 car crew chief) and I do a great job of working through new rules packages."

Kasey Kahne was the fastest among the Dodge Avenger drivers all day, finishing the day fourth overall. Rookie A.J. Allmendinger was the benchmark for the Toyotas, although he was still more than two tenths from the day's best.

As for the Fords, California winner Matt Kenseth was fastest, setting his best lap in the morning session to finish the day sixth overall.

Juan Pablo Montoya was one of four drivers to have incidents during the day, spinning in the morning session but avoiding contact with the wall.

His fastest lap was set in the morning where he was 30th, but he could not match that pace for the rest of a long first day at Bristol, in which he completed nearly 400 laps.

David Gilliland, Casey Mears and Ward Burton were the other three drivers causing yellow flags, all having contact with the wall. Burton crashed in the final minutes of the evening session in which he finished second quickest and third fastest overall.

With less than seven tenths of a second from the fastest to the slowest driver of the day, fears of a huge disparity between cars at the first Car of Tomorrow race have vanished, although further tests at longer and faster tracks will show more accurately how evenly matched the field is with the new car.

Runnning on Thursday is expected to go on until noon, although the weather may force the red flag to wave earlier.