Nationwide teams go to Richmond for two-day test

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The first open week of the Nationwide Series season actually begins with some on-track activity as teams converge on Richmond International Raceway on Monday and Tuesday for the third scheduled test of the year -- and the only one slated for a short track.

The quarter-mile facility will host the NASCAR Nationwide Series 250 on May 2.

More than 30 drivers representing more than 20 teams are expected to participate and gather notes for the remaining three short tracks on the 2008 schedule. Five races are left on those tracks this season.

Ambrose

"Richmond's a racy little place. It's a 'big' short track," Marcos Ambrose (No. 59 Ford) said. "We haven't had a lot of laps this year so far [on short tracks] so this will be good for us."

The first short-track race of the year occurred two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway where Clint Bowyer (No. 2 Chevrolet) won the rain-shortened event. Following his runner-up finish at Nashville Superspeedway this past Saturday, he's the series points leader for the first time in his NASCAR national series career.

"Richmond is the second-to-last test scheduled for the NASCAR Nationwide Series this year and it's our only short-track test," series director Joe Balash said. "Teams will gain valuable data that they will be using the rest of the season."

Kyle Busch (No. 32 Toyota), who has led laps in all but one race this year -- which happened to be on a short track at Bristol -- has specific areas to address at Richmond.

"We had a great car at Bristol, but weren't able to showcase it, unfortunately," said the two-time winner at Richmond. "I feel like we can go to Richmond and have a good test. I told [the team] we needed a different brake package on it from what we had at Bristol because Richmond is way harder on brakes. We'll see how that pans out and hopefully have a good test."

Busch will be joined at the test by five other series winners at Richmond -- defending race winner Bowyer, four-time race winner Kevin Harvick (No 33 Chevrolet), last year's series champion, Carl Edwards (No. 60 Ford), Jason Keller (No. 11 Chevrolet) and Morgan Shepherd (No. 89 Dodge).