Is The Testing Ban Saving Teams Money?

On the surface the NASCAR ban on testing at tracks NASCAR visits looks like it will save money for all teams. I think the key phrase here is the ban on testing AT TRACKS NASCAR VISITS. They did not ban testing altogether. They just banned testing at tracks any of the top NASCAR divisions race at. But does this ban really save teams money?

Last year, for example, several teams would go together and rent Dover for a day. There would be a cost to send the test team to Dover for the day. The driver would have to fly in for the testing. There would be hotel rooms, fuel, tires and the maybe some damage to a car to repair. The cost of the track rental would be shared among a few teams. The day of testing would be costly for sure.

This year teams cannot test at any NASCAR tracks. Does this stop testing? No it does not. It just stops testing at the tracks NASCAR races at. The top teams are still testing, just at tracks NASCAR does not race at. There is still the cost of rooms, fuel, tires, etc. Teams might not share the cost of renting a track, so that cost might be more. The smaller teams will not be able to test at Non-NASCAR tracks like the larger teams, so they will be at a disadvantage.

The larger teams are also spending more money on in-house testing equipment to shake down the car before it gets to the track. Again, smaller teams cannot afford the same equipment and are at a disadvantage. So the net result might not be much in savings because the money will still be spent on testing, just either at non-NASCAR tracks or in-house equipment.

I think a better solution would be opening the track for testing a day before you would normally have to be at the track for the race weekend. Teams have to travel to the track for the race, so there would not be any extra fuel costs. There would be extra tire costs, maybe an extra motor rebuild and one extra day of hotels, food, etc. Then ban ALL testing, at any track, for all teams. This would be easy to control. If I can read about teams testing at non-NASCAR tracks at Jayski’s Web site or a number of other Web sites, so can NASCAR. Let the teams still use all their electronic testing equipment to give the teams the information they are looking for.

The only downside, and I am not really sure this is a downside, is the teams would not have time to go back to the shop and digest the testing information. They could only use it for the upcoming race weekend. I am not sure the day-before-race weekend testing would be a downside. I think this would be good for the sport. This would save teams more money than the current ban on testing at NASCAR tracks.