Newman heads drafting session

Newman drafted his No. 12A Penske Dodge to set a lap of 48.247 seconds, with an average speed of 186.540 mph, the fastest this week so far.

"I think we are more ahead this time then where we were last year," Newman said. "This is the same car that we finished third with in the Daytona 500 last year."

David Ragan, who replaces Mark Martin in the No. 6 Roush Racing Ford, was second quickest at 186.536 mph, splitting the two Penske cars as Kurt Busch was third in the No. 2 Dodge.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who topped the morning single-car runs, finished the day in twelfth place, driving Chip Ganassi's No. 42 Dodge.

Nevertheless. his day was not without trouble as he had a small brush with the wall. There was no major damage to his car, though, and he was able to carry on with his testing duties.

Three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon was again the fastest Chevrolet in fourth and continued to show consistency both in single-car runs and in the draft.

The fastest Toyota driver in the draft was David Reutimann, whose Camry was the only one to lap into the 186 mph bracket.

Mike Skinner, AJ Allmendinger and Jeremy Mayfield lapped just above 184 mph, while Michael Waltrip's car was the slowest Toyota, setting his best lap at 183.016 mph and nearly a second off the pace.

Nextel Cup testing at Daytona concludes tomorrow.

Tuesday afternoon testing speeds at Daytona:

Pos  Driver               Make        Speed(mph)
 1.  Ryan Newman          Dodge       186.540
 2.  David Ragan          Ford        186.536
 3.  Kurt Busch           Dodge       186.501
 4.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet   186.463
 5.  Matt Kenseth         Ford        186.455
 6.  Denny Hamlin         Chevrolet   186.401
 7.  David Reutimann      Toyota      186.397
 8.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge       186.150
 9.  Regan Smith          Chevrolet   186.016
10.  Carl Edwards         Ford        185.947
11.  Mike Wallace         Chevrolet   185.866
12.  Juan Pablo Montoya   Dodge       185.778
13.  David Stremme        Dodge       185.563
14.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet   185.311
15.  J.J. Yeley           Chevrolet   185.208
16.  David Gilliland      Ford        184.805
17.  Kyle Busch           Chevrolet   184.566
18.  Mike Skinner         Toyota      184.540
19.  Stanton Barrett      Chevrolet   184.449
20.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet   184.313
21.  AJ Allmendinger      Toyota      184.241
22.  Johnny Sauter        Chevrolet   184.185
23.  Jeremy Mayfield      Toyota      184.011
24.  Kyle Petty           Dodge       183.775
25.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet   183.340
26.  Ken Schrader         Ford        183.165
27.  Kenny Wallace        Chevrolet   183.113
28.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota      183.016
29.  Ward Burton          Chevrolet   182.908
30.  Kevin Lepage         Dodge       182.905
31.  Paul Menard          Chevrolet   182.801
32.  Brandon Whitt        Chevrolet   181.108
33.  Mike Bliss           Dodge       181.101
34.  James Hylton         Chevrolet   180.658