Those scheming teams.(NASCAR)

Before NASCAR has time to rewrite the testing rulebook, teams are thinking outside the box to get an advantage on the racetrack.

In the ultracompetitive arena that is Nextel Cup racing, and as the gray areas of testing continue to evaporate, crews are constantly brainstorming to circumvent the system, regardless of the cost of equipment, travel or education. Several options are well within the rules and readily available.

For example, the increasing number of Cup drivers in the Busch Series is not a coincidence. Some of the sport's young hotshoes are too green for Cup and need additional seat time. Owners have a tendency to placate youngsters by graduating them to Cup prematurely rather than run the risk of offending a youngster who has had smoke blown up his butt by an agent who tells him he's the next Jeff Gordon.

And NASCAR hasn't helped the situation by cutting rookie tests this season. NASCAR's philosophy is that by the time a driver reaches the Cup level, he should have enough experience that additional testing isn't necessary.

In the Craftsman Truck and Busch series, rookie drivers receive an additional 30 minutes of practice during a race weekend. Still, that didn't stop the Wood Brothers from enrolling rookies Marcos Ambrose and Bobby East in the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Martinsville before last weekend's race. That also was the game plan for Richard Childress Racing's Cup rookie

Clint Bowyer, but the team canceled those plans when the Atlanta Cup race was rained out. However, Childress still ran Bowyer in the truck race, and crew chief Gil Martin plans to race Bowyer in an ARCA race at Pocono and send him to the Bob Bondurant and Jim Russell driving schools.

With RCR, Dale Earnhardt Inc. plans to send its drivers to Infineon Raceway in Busch cars to gather more seat time before the Cup race. Because there's no Busch race at Infineon, that road course is fair game for tests. And the opportunities don't stop there. Expect half the field for the Martinsville Busch race in July to be Cup drivers. Martinsville will return as race No. 6 in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.