Daytona 500 Testing- Day 3
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Posted by Jeremy Dunn Jan 10, 2008 |
Jimmie Johnson dominated the first half of the week's first testing session while Kyle Busch dominated the last half. Busch, formerly a teammate of Jimmie Johnson at Hendrick Motorsports, is starting his first season driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and their fleet of Toyota Camry's. In the first testing session Wednesday morning, Kyle Busch led the way with a speed of 187.786 mph (47.927). In the Wednesday afternoon session, Busch led the way with a speed of 188.830 mph (47.662).
In other news, Red Bull Racing has hired Kevin Hamlin to take over the crew chief role for Brian Vickers and 83 team. Hamlin recently served as the crew chief for Dave Blaney on the Bill Davis Racing #22 team. Hamlin was also the Dale Earnhardt's last crew chief before his death at Daytona in 2001. Hamlin became Earnhardt's crew chief in the summer of 1998. He also worked with Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton in his tenure with Richard Childress Racing. This is not the first time that Vickers has had the pleasure of working a former crew chief of Dale Earnhardt. Last season, Doug Richert worked with Vickers and the 83 team. Richert was 20 years old when he helped lead Earnhardt to his first Cup championship in 1980 with Rod Osterlund.
The Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals will be televised on Pay-Per-View on Saturday. Also, NASCAR.com and Foxsports.com will streamline the qualifying session on Friday night at 10:30 PM. Sprint Cup drivers Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne will be among those competing in the Chili Bowl as well as Nationwide Series driver Jason Leffler.