NASCAR testing notebook: Sadler, Gaughan impress at LVMS

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

Elliott Sadler and Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan proved to be the biggest surprises on the first day of a week-long NASCAR open test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Sadler, driving the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Taurus, topped the speed chart Monday with a fast lap of 31.796 seconds (169.833 mph) around the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

"This is an all different game this year because this is an all different team," Sadler said. "We got the right people on board now and we've had three great tests.

"We brought two new cars here and we've also tested at Kentucky to get ready for this place and it all seems to be paying off."

Gaughan, the 2000 NASCAR Winston West champion who will attempt to qualify for the March 4 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Winston Cup race at LVMS, was the ninth fastest driver and had the 13th fastest time at 32.403 (166.651 mph).

Gaughan leased a Chevrolet Monte Carlo from Richard Childress Racing, which fields Winston Cup cars for drivers Dale Earnhardt and Mike Skinner, and was quicker than both Earnhardt (32.689) and Skinner (32.776) on Monday.

"We're excited," Gaughan said. "The setup was really conservative to start ... but we loosened some things up. We were told that if we could get the attitude of this car right, it's a rocket ship -- and we think we got the attitude right."

Winston Cup rookie Andy Houston posted the second-fastest lap Monday at 31.907 (169.242 mph) in a Chevy and Jerry Nadeau had both the third and fourth fastest laps at 31.927 (169.136) and 31.940 (169.067) in a Chevy.

Joe Nemechek was fifth quickest at 32.081 (168.324) and three-time Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon was sixth at 32.102 (168.214). Both Nemechek and Gordon were driving Chevrolets.

A total of 16 drivers -- 13 from the Winston Cup Series and three from the Busch Series -- took part in Monday's test.

Greg Biffle, driving the No. 60 Chevrolet, was the fastest Busch Series driver with a lap of 32.314 (167.110).

Mark Martin, who won the inaugural Winston Cup race at LVMS in 1998, posted the 15th fastest lap at 32.452 (166.400); seven-time Winston Cup champion Earnhardt was 19th fastest at 32.689 (165.193); former series champion Terry Labonte was 23rd quickest at 32.792 (164.674); and Las Vegas native Kurt Busch was the 23rd fastest Winston Cup driver at 33.103 (163.127).

None of the drivers challenged Ricky Rudd's pole speed of last year at 172.563.

The test continues through Friday and is open to the public, free of charge.

Kevin Triplett, NASCAR's director of operations, said that the series' governing body would test the changes this afternoon with selected drivers.

"We've got a lot of ideas ... but we don't want to completely turn this into an R&D test," Triplett said. "We want to take somebody who has the willingness to run a few laps with some of our suggestions and then see how it goes."

The proposed changes would add drag to the cars which, NASCAR hopes, would allow them to pass one another more easily on the track and lead to more exciting racing.

"We don't think anything's wrong (with the racing), but why not try to improve if you can?" Triplett said. "But it has got to work -- you can't make things worse."

NASCAR president Mike Helton and competition director Gary Nelson are in Las Vegas to observe the test.

Among the Winston Cup drivers who will be testing today and Wednesday are Rusty Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Ron Hornaday and Michael Waltrip.

The haulers for Busch Series drivers Shane Hall and Tim Sauter were slowed by snow in Texas and did not make it to Las Vegas in time for Monday's test.