How about this for a testing rule?

We posted earlier about how or how not, open testing would/could hurt the smaller underfunded teams.  Well what would you think about the following:

If NASCAR limited each owner to say 20 test per year (Nascar tracks).  They can send a car to any track they wish.  Lets say an owner sends all 4 cars to Indy,  Then he has 16 test sessions left.  So a superteam like Rousch, HMS, JGR etc basically is limited to 5 test per car, but someone like Robby Gordon could test at 20 different tracks. 

To me this would really even the playing field.  It gives the smaller operations a chance to learn more and be able to compete with the bigger funded teams while at the same time if a superteam has a new driver, i.e. Joey Logano at JGR, JGR could actually send Joey to say 10 tracks per year while still being able to send the other two cars to 5 tracks to test. 

Just a thought what does everyone else think?

I Think something similar was touched on, just no detail was went into.  My only question would be, how they determine who the actual owner is.  Unless the rule was made very specific, they would find a loophole. Also, how would it affect satellite teams, who get their Chassis/engines from another team.  They could put a contract clause in that their test information was shared with their engine provider.   So, even if, say, HAAS could test 10 times per car, if their information was shared with Hendrick, it wouldn't help that much anyway.   

It makes sense. NASCAR will never go for it.

I actually thought the post was going to say that only MWR can test next year.

Mikeyfan I think your idea is sound and makes good sense if NASCAR's test agenda is to put restraints on the larger funded teams and give an added advantage to the smaller teams in hopes of making them more competitive. but I believe that NASCAR is looking at this test program as a opportunity for all the teams to get a better understanding of the COT design and therefore get a better handle on how to properly setup their cars.

I think the reason behind this is that NASCAR witnesses the racing competitiveness every weekend since the institution of the COT much like the fans do.. which is the car that has hit the setup that week for that track runs away with the event with little to no legitimate challengers, while the rest of the field turns laps struggling to make all four turns without loosing the rear-end or pushing to the point of almost stopping through the turns... this makes for a very boring race until the final laps when we look for a chain of events to alter what has looked like a guaranteed winner for the first 290 laps..

Allowing the teams to test more will accelerate the learning curve and put the races back in the hands of the drivers on the track and not the engineers in the shop or the final call of the Crew Chief in the box.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I would agree with you if this wasn't such a new program with so many kinks needing to be worked out still.. then sure let the smaller teams have the extra practice time for fine tuning but this program is a long way from the fine tuning stage..they all need the track time just to put a product on the track they can drive at this point.

mikey and justgreat both make sense (i know weird, huh?) and very valid points.

maybe they should have a lot of testing for say the next year , that will give them 2 full years to work on the COT and if they don't have it figured out by then they're not going to, and then 2010 do what mikey said.

maybe that makes sense. knowing  me i doubt it.

The sharing of information between teams would offset that rule.   For example, the Dodge teams have shared test results ever since Dodge got into NASCAR.   That was a big factor in Dodge catching up with the Ford and Chevy teams in terms of overall competitiveness.

I don't follow the behind-the-scenes of NASCAR that closely (work obligations tend to get in the way).   Why don't they just make the COT tests results open to everyone?