Six days of testing at Daytona International Speedway left one lasting impression with all three of NASCAR's national divisions: This will be a season of change.
Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World series teams had two days each to shake down new cars and get ready for the upcoming season. Many, however, went home with a greater sense of uncertainty.
The Sprint Cup Series has a higher rear spoiler for the season-opening Daytona 500 and no clear direction for cars after that. The Nationwide Series left with new rules that outlaw two-car tandems, and the Camping World Truck Series not only has new 2014 models, it has the same rules against tandem-drafting.
So here are the four biggest things learned from the just-completed test:
New rules are in place
Teams already know NASCAR won't measure the height of the car before or after a race. That essentially means everyone is allowed to make the car as low or as high as they want.
There also are new rules in place to make the cars more stable in heavy traffic.
What's not known is if there are any more changes coming in the next few weeks.
"It's tough to complete the cars and go test and know what you're going to have because we're still waiting for the rule book to be finalized for the intermediate package," Jimmie Johnson said. "But as soon as that stuff is nailed down, we'll go to the track at least once."
The lack of commitment was apparent at Daytona. In the past, teams usually brought two cars to the test. That way one could be on the track while crews made adjustments to the other.
This year, all teams had one car because they didn't want to spend the time and money to build a new car if they had to tear it up to make changes.
January will be full of announcements
NASCAR president Mike Helton and vice president Robin Pemberton said other changes are on the way, and they plan to make announcements throughout the month.
"We've got a lot of things on our plate, more than normal," Pemberton said. "As we work through the details, we'll get them out to you as soon as we can.
"I can tell you that we're finalizing everything, and we're working on it, and we'll have plenty of news the rest of the month of January. It's a long month. It's one of our longest, very long."
Pemberton said single-car qualifying in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series would be replaced by a different format. Exactly what, however, will be revealed later this month.
There's also a discussion to change the Sprint Cup Series points system to put a greater emphasis on "risk taking" and winning.
Many feel the sanctioning body is dangerously close to being too gimmicky.
"Now I think the idea of giving more points to wins and things like that, I like that idea," Carl Edwards said. "I think it's interesting. You don't want to change things all the time just to change."
Expect something on that later this month.
No hook-ups allowed
NASCAR broke up two car-tandems in the Sprint Cup Series by reducing the size of the radiator opening on the front grille. Now it's doing the same thing in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series for races at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway.
And to enforce it, NASCAR said it will black-flag drivers who run nose-to-tail to gang up on single cars for any significant amount of time.
Drivers had mixed reactions.
"No, I'm actually disappointed in it, to be totally honest," defending truck series champion Matt Crafton said. "I think the tandem deal, you can get away from people. But now you're going to have those packs of 20 trucks. It's going to be crazy to watch."
"I don't particularly care for the tandem," Nationwide driver Regan Smith said. "I think getting rid of that is going to be good. I'm excited to see the style of race it will be when that's gone and assuming that that's gone completely this year."
Keep on trucking
Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota have new trucks for this year with a greater emphasis on brand identification. Now racing trucks will look more like the same pickups in the parking lot.
To help with the cost, NASCAR will allow teams to use their 2013 models this year as well.
Manufacturers, however, will push for teams to use the current models because that's what they have in showrooms.
Because teams haven't had the chance to shake down the new trucks, many are waiting to build a new fleet.
"That's just because if we think that if this truck can improve, we can go back and build another one with the improvements to it, better than bringing two trucks here and tearing both of them apart and having to put a new body on them," Ryan Blaney said. "I wouldn't say we're behind. It's just kind of being smart and not wasting two trucks really if we think we can improve on this one."
Copyright 2014 - The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville
