HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NASCAR has suspended testing for 2009 at any NASCAR touring series track, including at Daytona International Speedway in January, sanctioning body officials confirmed this morning at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The suspension of testing will include all touring series tracks, but teams will still be allowed to test at NASCAR weekly racing series tracks. A NASCAR official confirmed the suspension of testing but not the details. The ban will include any track that holds a Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Truck or Camping World East or West Series races.

"I think it's the biggest thing for NASCAR right now," said Gillett Evernham Motorsports crew chief Rodney Childers. "It's going to be the right thing to keep the sport healthy. It will be tough on the teams, but it will keep the sport healthy. It's going to put a lot of thought into what you have to do at the shop. Whether it's seven-post work or wind-tunnel work. It's probably not going to be a bad deal."

Teams say that while they will still test at non-sanctioned sites, the number of tests will most likely decline, and money will be saved.

Jimmy Makar, vice president of racing operations for Joe Gibbs Racing, said that while teams will still test, they won't match the total number of tests of this season. He points out that, as of now, this is simply a one-year moratorium on the traditional testing policy in an effort to keep pace with a struggling economy.

In the past, teams tested at seven sanctioned tracks in group sessions, but the testing policy for next season has been a source of debate for much of the season. Teams had originally expected to be allowed to schedule their own tests at sanctioned tracks instead of participating in just official sessions over the course of the season.

So while teams will still spend money on testing, they won't spend as much.

"We're all really tightening our belts up … Guys with limited funding are struggling right now and trying to find ways to cut the expenses and hold on until this thing gets turned around," Makar said of the economy.

He does not dispute that the gap between the successful, fully funded teams and those that are struggling could widen. However, he points out that saving all the teams is the most crucial thing at this point.

"Obviously I think if you don't have the ability to do some of the things, simulation programs and rig testing and different things that maybe the smaller teams can't do, then, yeah, it might be a little disadvantage, but I heard it put the best the other day: This isn't trying to keep the back of the field up with the front of the field; this is just trying to keep the back of the field here," he said. " … The difference between the haves and have-nots gets a little bigger, but you still have those guys
around through these tough times."

Yates Racing crew chief Cully Barraclough sees this in equally simple terms.

“Racers want to test; money guys are glad this happened,” he said. “With the economy the way it is, this is the only way to keep everything viable. I am not going to argue with the decision. There is a lot of weird stuff going on in the world right now. This is what we’ve got to do to keep as many teams as viable as we can.”

Still, this will present a problem for next season's crop of rookie drivers.

Instead of being able to let a driver get accustomed to a track through a testing session, teams will have to find other ways to get him some experience. Obviously tracks such as Little Rockingham, the half-mile oval next to Rockingham Raceway Park in North Carolina, and Caraway (N.C.) Speedway and others will become more popular.

But teams say it is more difficult to find tracks that mirror the 1.5-mile ovals that dominate the Cup schedule. And that could alter a rookie driver's approach to 2009.

"It's certainly a concern of ours," Makar said of preparing Joey Logano, who will compete full time in the Cup series for Joe Gibbs Racing for the first time next season. "We're trying to brainstorm some different ideas of what to do and how to get him up to speed for some of these tracks he's never seen before. Obviously, running in the Nationwide Series full time is going to help a lot of places. We're probably going to have to look at running a limited amount of ARCA events at Pocono, places like that that he's never seen. We're just going to have to look at our options and try to get him as much experience and as much time on the track as we can."

For the most part, crew chiefs and team officials say the change will save them money and not not significantly alter the performance lineup in the garage.

"The strongest financially funded teams are always on top," said Robbie Loomis, vice president of racing operations for Petty Enterprises. "It goes all the way through, and it's not going to change whether we're testing or not. You might see a little difference, but we'll still have great racing. It's going to kill rookies. But these guys like Logano will make drivers ... spend more time in [Nationwide]. When Jimmie Johnson came up, he was ready to go because he spent more time in [Nationwide]. Joey Logano is going to tackle the learning curve in Cup at Home Depot's expense."

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