FanHouse PreseasonThunder

If there's a prettier scene than that in NASCAR, I've yet to see it.

I didn't say the racing was amazing in California -- frankly, it's not -- but it's still a gorgeous background. Almost on par with Labor Day in the Darlington, S.C.-area.

Almost.

Anyways, Jeff Gordon took top honors in the afternoon session Thursday with his lap of 180.505mph on his 75th lap of the session. Yes, seventy-fifth.

The California-native, though, didn't pace the overall speed chart from the morning and afternoon sessions as that honor belonged to Denny Hamlin's Toyota with a lap of 182.523.

Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, and Gordon's lap from the morning session rounded out the top-5 in the cumlative morning and afternoon results.

Teams were given the option over the two-day California Speedway test to choose from four of the five sessions offered. Three were offered Thursday (including one under the lights) and two on Friday, to give teams either a chance to test at night for when they return for the track's second date in September or to head home Friday afternoon.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat out the first session on Thursday meaning he'll be around until the track closes Friday afternoon.

As of this post, times haven't been posted for the night session. Until then, go back to looking at that gorgeous picture.

Juan Pablo Montoya made a big statement Tuesday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to doubters of the NASCAR's next-generation race car for the Sprint Cup series.

Turning a lap of 186.761mph, Montoya would have taken the official track record away from Kasey Kahne (184.856mph in 2007) had it been an official qualifying session.

But one thing Montoya did was to prove that the new race car isn't as slow as everyone thought, and that teams are adapting to the packages well. It should be noted, of course, that teams aren't loudly disapproving of the tires that Goodyear brought like they did last year for the race at Vegas.

As you may recall, Tony Stewart's approval of the tires in '07 terms for describing them was "crap" on the newly configured surface.

As teams, though, head into their travel/work day before testing at California Speedway on Thursday and Friday, the general consensus seems to be that teams are getting a handle on the car and the track in Vegas. That's only good news for race fans.

A.J. Allmendinger, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne and Reed Sorenson rounded out the five fastest cars at LVMS.

Jeff Burton tore up a race car early Tuesday while Tony Stewart scraped the wall and Michael Waltrip looped his -- all in turn three. The test session was ended a few minutes early after Jeff Gordon laid oil down on the track.

Keep it here at NASCAR Fanhouse for plenty of updates on the Sprint Cup testing in California.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers needed just one day to get the next-generation race car up to speed Monday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the first leg of the west coast swing of preseason testing.

Kyle Busch led all drivers in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on his 28th lap of the day with a speed of 183.580mph.

That lap is just over one mile per hour slower than the track record that Kasey Kahne set last February, and will likely silence some critics of the new car who complain that its too slow.

Tony Stewart, in another Joe Gibbs Racing entry, put two of his Toyotas in second and third on the speed chart in the afternoon session. Carl Edwards' No. 99 cars were fourth and fifth.

According to Jayski, quite a few drivers made contact with the wall -- and in one case, a concrete piling.

Some Incidents during a very windy day at Las Vegas included: #01-Smith spun off turn two in the early session and spun around and smacked the nose into the inside wall. #77-Hornish scraped the wall hard. #40-Franchitti spun and the rear of the car was heavly damaged. #27-Villeneuve spun around but failed to hit anything. #6-Ragan spun off turn 2, the car was pretty much destroyed. #8-Martin hit a cement piling avoiding a tow truck in the garage area, doing damage to the front end of the car.

Those events alone made Monday's test session more exciting than the two weeks of testing at Daytona that have already taken place.

But really, a concrete piling, Mark? That's got to be a good story.

The first western swing of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2008 campaign hits full stride Monday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The second scheduled stop of the Preseason Thunder testing sessions will offer drivers their first opportunity to turn laps at Vegas in the new model of NASCAR race cars. Sprint Cup Series director John Darby thinks that's nothing but a good thing.

"The good part of it is we're not all worried about it," said Darby, referring to the flurry of criticism that followed last years new car testing.

"All that's behind us."

The test -- it runs Monday and Tuesday at LVMS -- will also give the drivers a better idea as to what the new car feels like without a restrictor plate on the motor and in the exact specifications that the teams will come back with in March for the third race of the year.

A travel day is scheduled for Wednesday as teams make the trek towards California Speedway in Fontana, site of the first "normal" race following the Daytona 500 in February. Once they've arrived, the garages will be open for any work teams need to get done before testing on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday's session runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. while Friday's goes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- local times of course.

Darby said that because of the new car's design requirements, many teams will bring two cars total out west instead of swapping in the middle of the week like years past when teams would build track-specific cars. The new car has much fewer tolerances as a cost-saving measure.

Check back at NASCAR Fanhouse throughout the week for recaps and speeds or bookmark NASCAR Testing for complete testing coverage.

NASCAR fans, your wait is (almost) over.

Monday at Daytona International Speedway, the first wave of Sprint Cup cars will hit the track for the first day of a three-day testing session at the legendary 2.5 mile superspeedway. Saddled with the name "Preseason Thunder", the stars and cars hoping for a successful run in February's Daytona 500 will look to find speed in both qualifying and race trim.

It will be the first time that the new incarnation of a NASCAR race car (titled the Car of Tomorrow in 2007) will be tested for speed at Daytona -- the speedway that's celebrating the 50th edition of the Daytona 500 this season.

For the first session, only half of the field will be present at Daytona. The remaining drivers will head to Daytona next week for a three-day session.

The split of teams allows more room for all cars to be take more laps around the track with less problems with drafting -- especially important for qualifying runs. The breakdown of teams on which session they would attend was based on owner points after Chicago in 2007.

For that reason, you'll see 2007 champ Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, the Busch brothers, and others this week at Daytona. For a complete list, check out this release from Daytona.

Weather for the week looks really, really good with temperatures in the upper 70s and sunny from Monday to Wednesday. If it's needed, a rain date is scheduled for Thursday.

Check back to the Fanhouse each evening for more on speeds and news from each day at Daytona.