Teams Still Testing Despite Ban

NASCAR's testing ban doesn't seem to be working as well as officials might have hoped.

As expected, several teams have been cris-crossing the country over the past few weeks in attempt to shake down their race cars for the upcoming season. Instead, though, of testing at NASCAR sanctioned facilities, they've been testing at places such as General Motors' proving grounds in Mesa, Ariz., New Smyrna Speedway in Florida and Texas World Speedway.

The testing ban, instituted by NASCAR in November, forbid any NASCAR team from going to any NASCAR-sanctioned facility to help cut costs during the economic tailspin that has greatly affected many aspects of the racing industry.

And not so surprisingly, the effort to cut costs apparently hasn't been as gloriously successful -- although teams did avoid wasting their time in Daytona.

According to the SPEED TV's Bob Dillner, a host of teams have been testing at several places in an effort to check new braking compenents or aerodynamic packages. In his article, Dillner listed Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle testing out a rarely-used 2-mile Texas World Speedway while Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are on the schedule at New Smryna's short track.

Dillner also said Roush Fenway Racing brought cars to Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina with the new Gillett-Evernham/Petty Enterprises team scheduled to be on-track next week.

Jayski.com reported earlier this week that fourteen GM teams including Hendrick, Richard Childress Racing and others made the trek to the car company's Mesa Proving Grounds in Arizona.

As I noted a week ago with the lack of Daytona testing, the ban truly could help save some teams some time and money -- mainly by not wasting time for at Daytona testing in qualifying mode -- but as always, NASCAR's ban has left some loopholes.

And as we know, loopholes for NASCAR teams don't stay small for very long.