Testing at Daytona

The Daytona 500 is more than a month away, but testing for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season begins Monday with a collection of drivers including Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears.
Johnson won last year's Cup championship, his second in a row. Gordon was the runner-up. Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards, all Chase drivers from a year ago, will also be testing at Daytona.
This is the first test session for Cup teams since the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November. NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow, which was used in select races last year, will be used in every race in 2008. Every Cup team will be testing in the Car of Tomorrow at Daytona.
“We’re feeling pretty good about it,” said Chad Knaus, crew chief for and the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. “We’ve got a couple of good cars we’re bringing. It’s going to be fun to have this car at Daytona and we’re looking forward to getting back to the track.”
Teams that held odd-numbered positions in the owners standings on July 17, 2007, will be the first to test, beginning Monday and ending Wednesday. Teams that had even-numbered spots in the standings as of July 17 will test Jan. 14 at Daytona and conclude their runs Jan. 16 as part of NASCAR's Preseason Thunder.
The teams and drivers will test at California Speedway as part of Preseason Thunder Jan. 31 to Feb. 1 and Las Vegas Motor Speedway before the season starts Feb. 17 with the Daytona 500.
“A lot of people think when they wave the green flag at Homestead, we all leave and go to the beach,” Knaus said. “That’s not what happens. We’ve been in here working five and six days a week and haven’t really taken that much time off. Contrary to what people think, we really have been working hard, but our guys are now looking forward to going to the race track.”
The other drivers who will be testing first are:
David Reutimann, Robby Gordon, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Elliott Sadler, Jacques Villeneuve, Travis Kvapil, Scott Wimmer, Reed Sorenson, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kyle Petty, Jeremy Mayfield, Joe Nemechek, AJ Allmendinger, J.J. Yeley and Jason Keller.