Elliott, new Fusion make waves as testing begins

Well, they are actually refering to the other Elliott, but I think this one is better looking.

Highlights from Monday's evening session of Preseason Thunder:

Bill Elliott on Monday dropped the pedal for a pace-setting lap of 187.219 mph on the first day of Preseason Thunder at Daytona.

Elliott Sadler was third in the afternoon test.

Monday marked the first day of Nextel Cup Series testing for the new Ford Fusion, and from the early returns it looks as if Matt Kenseth and Sadler have a jump on their fellow blue oval drivers.

"Anytime you bring a new body type to a race track or open a season with it, you're going to have different things that you've got to do to massage on it and get it right, get it close," Sadler said. "But from a team standpoint, we've been so lucky how much testing Ford has done in the wind tunnel before we got it. They ran it through the wind tunnel time and time again, and massaged on it for us, and it really got it great. By the time the actual teams got the car, the Fusion was pretty much in race-ready trim.
"When we got it, the guys put the nose and tail on it, and massaged it all it up and got it right. We got to the wind tunnel and we were pretty close. We were like, 'Wow, we're right here in the ballgame.' So, we knew when we unloaded [Monday] morning that the Fusion was going to be fast, and it has been. One of my cars has been pretty good, and it's driving good."
The Fusion is the first new race car and new production car introduced by Ford at the same time since 1968 with the Torino.

Kenseth was fourth-fastest in the morning and Sadler was fifth; in the afternoon session Kenseth was sixth.
Kenseth was one of five Roush Racing drivers to make the Chase lat year in a Ford Taurus, and after the first test session Specht said the Fusion has the potential to be a better racecar.
"I think that the car is better than the one that we raced last year," he said. "I'm guardedly optimistic. We can only go by the wind-tunnel numbers that we've seen on our own car, and those indications are that we're a little better than we were last year.
"Again, you won't know until you get on the race track and the green flag drops, but so far we think we're OK."
http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/headlines/cup/01/09/monday.pm.testing/index.html