INDIANAPOLIS — Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya like what they've seen from the new Cup cars at Indianapolis.
On Monday, the two former Indianapolis winners joined a growing list of test participants who have raved about everything from handling to quicker speeds to tire wear on the 2.5-mile oval that has often caused so much consternation for NASCAR drivers.
"Our car has been quick at a lot of tracks where it has not been really fast in the past, and the testing has been pretty good today," said McMurray, who won the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in 2010. "It's our first time here with this car and it seems like some of the setup stuff is a little different from what we've been doing here the last couple of years."
McMurray and Montoya are part of a small contingent — five cars from the Cup Series and four from the Nationwide Series — that is testing at Indy through Tuesday.
Also testing was Denny Hamlin, who was cleared to drive Monday morning after a hard crash Sunday at Kentucky. After the race, Hamlin complained of headaches, but Indy's medical team found nothing that would prevent Hamlin from climbing into the No. 11 car and turning laps in excess of 200 mph. Neither Hamlin or his team took questions.
With cool temperatures, overcast skies and light winds, the weather was ideal for top speeds, though rain postponed most of the scheduled afternoon session.
But the common them coming out of all the tests at Indy is this: The new car is outperforming the old one.
On a warmer, sunny day in April, Jeff Gordon and Trevor Bayne walked off the track and said they were impressed with the way the cars handled in those conditions, too, and both noted that even the tire wear was better than usual. That's become a recurring question since the 2008 race turned into a series of short sprints when tire problems brought out so many cautions.
