It took a day of waiting thanks to the weather, but Friday more than 30 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers were finally able to test NASCAR’s new Gen 6 car at the 1.5 mile Charlotte Motor Speedway.
At the end of the day Richard Petty Motorsports driver Aric Almirola turned the fastest lap of 27.832 seconds at 194.021 mph. Carl Edwards at 193.673 mph and Casey Mears at 193.382 mph were second and third with Marcos Ambrose 193.285 mph and Jimmie Johnson 192.795 mph rounded out the top five.
As teams waited out track drying Friday morning Roush-Fenway driver Greg Biffle said whatever time they could get on the track was important.
“We’ve tested a few times with a composite body and not all of the latest rules, but this is really it for us,” he said. “We needed these two days to really figure out what the car is going to end up like. Hopefully, we can test into the evening and it won’t get too cold too fast because I’d rather stay as long as we can and get as much information as we can, versus having to pack this whole show up and go somewhere else again, or come back later.”
The session was extended by NASCAR until 7:30 p.m. to allow teams as much time as possible with the new cars which will debut next month at Daytona. .
“This is the deal where we all roll out new cars at the same time and everybody is trying to get a jump on the rest of the guys,” said Martin Truex Jr, driver of the No. 56 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. “We’re going to get as much time on the track as we can get.”
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