Michael Waltrip thinks testing should be banned for good

By Mike Smith (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009 | 7:42 a.m.

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Michael Waltrip thinks the temporary ban on testing should be made permanent. “My philosophy on testing is that it’s a colossal waste of time and money,” Waltrip was quoted as saying on scenedaily.com.

Waltrip contends that wind tunnel testing, use of the seven-post rig and other forms of simulation make testing on the track obsolete. “Everything about the (cars’) setup…can be done virtually or through wind tunnel and seven-post testing,” he said.

On the surface this sounds like a good idea. I don’t know enough about setting up a Sprint Cup car to know if Waltrip is 100 percent correct, but if a majority of a car’s setup is determined by results from a lab, then testing would seem to be overkill.

By saving on expenses for tires, fuel, travel and man-hours, the current testing ban hopefully will accomplish its primary goal of saving each team around $1 million. That may not sound like much given the size of some of these teams’ budgets, but I can guarantee you that any business man who’s involved with racing in this economic climate will jump at the chance to save $1 million.

The problem I have with the current ban is that it only extends to NASCAR-sanctioned tracks. Teams with enough money to test at tracks that aren’t part of the NASCAR circuit can benefit from the information they would gather at these tests. As a result, the gap between the big-money teams and the teams with the tiny piggy banks would get even larger. And, of course, the multi-car teams also have the advantage of the additional technical information that comes from being able to test multiple cars.

If a ban on testing were ever to become a permanent fixture in NASCAR, then the ban should be extended to include all tracks.

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