TEST DUMMIES; Here's the lowdown on NASCAR preseason test days.(News)(National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing )

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

Early in the afternoon of Jan. 14, NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Ryan Newman drove his Dodge nearly 187 mph in preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway.

Exciting, yes?

No. "If you take your rental car and drive through the tunnel, then back through the tunnel, then through the tunnel again, it's about the same thing,'' said Newman. There's a great deal of sitting and waiting, while the crew adjusts spoilers and tire pressures and checks spark plugs, then sends the driver out again for three or four laps. Rusty Wallace, Newman's Penske teammate, referred to himself as a "test dummy.''

It might have been more exciting had Newman's best lap of 186.703 mph placed him near the top of the speed charts, but last year's winningest driver was 24th. In a suggestion of manufacturer parity, Ricky Rudd was the fastest in his Ford at 188.470 mph, John Andretti was second in a Chevrolet at 188.198, and Ken Schrader was an unlikely third in his Dodge at 187.793. The quickest cars were about 5 mph faster than last year's top speeds. Pontiac, you will recall, is gone, but it isn't through with racing-it will spend a little money fielding road-racing GTOs, most likely with the NASCAR-connected Grand-Am series.

And it also might have been more exciting had this test not been at a superspeedway, as the majority of NASCAR's Cup rules changes, most involving aerodynamics and downforce, aren't in play here. At Daytona, the cars "feel just like they did last year,'' Wallace says. "I can't tell a difference.''

Daytona's "Preseason Thunder,'' which certainly sounds compelling, began Jan. 6 with the Nextel Cup cars that finished in odd-number points in 2003, and ended with Busch Series testing Jan. 21, with Craftsman Truck testing in the middle. Aside from a handful of minor to moderate crashes, most notably by Nextel Cup drivers Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip, there was not a great deal of news. Otherwise Jeff Gordon's close-cropped haircut, which revealed a receding hairline that suggests associate sponsorship from the Hair Club for Men might be in the future, wouldn't have made headlines.