NASCAR: Wallace Fastest on Second Night of Daytona Testing
10 June 1998
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Wallace was clocked at 47.520 seconds, for an average speed of 189.394 mph in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Taurus.
"The lights are incredible," said Wallace, who is still searching for his first NASCAR Winston Cup points-paying victory at Daytona. "Night racing is a thing of the future, the cars like it, the fans like it, and the tracks stay consistent. It's something that I think that all of the drivers are going to endorse. I can't wait to race here on July 4th, the track looks great.
"The cars run so close together at Daytona that you won't be able to get much light between them no matter what type of lighting system you use. Let's face it, the Pepsi 400 is going to be one heck of a race, it's going to be something everyone is going to remember.
"We chose to come test at Daytona not because of the lighting, we knew the lighting would be great. But we had an issue come up, we ran really good in the Daytona 500 and ended up finishing fifth, but when we went to Talladega we didn't run as well there. I thought that since we really needed to do some work for the Pepsi 400 and for Talladega in October , that is was best to come here now and start working on it right away."
The test concludes today (Wednesday) and will run from 3:30-10:30 p.m. A section of the Oldfield Grandstand is open daily at no charge with access through the lobby of DAYTONA USA, "The Ultimate Motorsports Attraction." Guided Speedway Tours are also available from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a nominal fee.
NASCAR WINSTON CUP TEST SPEEDS -- June 9*
NO DRIVER SPEED NO DRIVER SPEED
2 Rusty Wallace 189.394 mph 96 Hut Stricklin 187.383
28 Loy Allen 189.277 7 Geoff Bodine 186.920
31 Mike Skinner 188.838 89 Dennis Setzer 186.916
21 Michael Waltrip 188.655 35 Todd Bodine 186.413
98 Rich Bickle 188.640 15 Blaise Alexander184.240
6 Mark Martin 188.482 77 Robert Pressley 183.673
40 Sterling Marlin 187.691
* Electronic times taken randomly throughout the day.
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