With breaks in the schedule for Easter, Mothers Day and possibly one open weekend during the summer, the Winston Cup teams will be on the road for a span of 41 weeks next year. With new speedways being built across the country, the want and desire for a Winston Cup race date is immense, and it will only increase. This makes for one incredibly long and exhausting season of racing for the teams. And of course the longer a season is, the more expensive it becomes, to the teams and ultimately to the fans. Looking at solutions, one simple approach would be to eliminate in-season testing altogether.
Testing means more work for the crewmembers .
CART recently adopted a new set of rules for testing during the 2001 race season. The new testing regulations eliminate in-season testing for CART teams starting next year. Current rules provide 36 test days per season, of which 20 could be run in-season. Single car teams will be allowed 14 test days, a reduction from 24. Another important change CART implemented was the elimination of Friday Qualifying.