Kahne Fastest; Toyota Leaves DIS Smiling

Kasey Kahne finished as the fastest driver through the past two weeks of testing at Daytona International Speedway, but the Toyota camp left with the biggest smile.

On a day that saw the entire day's testing session squeezed into a seven-hour multi-car parade at 180mph, Kahne dropped a lap of 189.111 mph to put his No. 9 Dodge Charger at the top speed chart. Forecasted rain -- it never materialized -- forced NASCAR to skip a lunch break and run one entire session until 4pm.

The Toyotas, though, left on a much higher note than they left the Daytona 500 last year -- with slow cars and a dense cloud hanging over the operation from Michael Waltrip's fuel additive scandal. Instead, Camrys ran consistently at the top of the charts in single-lap speed sessions and had good-handling cars in the draft.

The love was spread among many of the teams, as well, with Bill Davis Racing (Blaney), Red Bull Racing (Allmendinger & Vickers), Michael Waltrip Racing (Waltrip, Dale Jarrett & David Reutimann) and Joe Gibbs Racing (Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart & Denny Hamlin) all getting near the top of the chart.

The Toyotas didn't completely dominant the drafting side of things, though, with Kahne's Dodge pacing the way, the Toyotas of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin second and third, Dario Franchitti's Dodge fourth, and Regan Smith's Chevy in fifth. The fastest Ford was Matt Kenseth in seventh.

The next round of preseason NASCAR testing heads out west to California and Las Vegas. Vegas will see the Sprint Cup stars January 28-29 and California will get the drivers Jan. 31-Feb. 1.