IRL to race at Daytona?

The question is: What were Indy-car teams doing for two days this week on Daytona International Speedway's road course? Testing their equipment? Testing the track? Both? Neither track nor series officials would say if Indy cars will return to the Florida track in 2008 for a race — it's likely they don't know yet. Indy Star

Most everybody with this series seemed pleased with the performance of the open-wheel, ethanol-powered cars and productivity of the session. The consensus in the garage was this: with some modifications and tweaks to the course, Daytona would be suitable for an IRL race. But IndyCar Series officials indicated there's much more work that needs to be done before Daytona lands a race date. IRL president and chief operating officer Brian Barnhart said the series would likely need more testing here before scheduling a racing event. "There are just certain places you want to be, and sure we want to be here, but there are so many steps that have to take place that have to be examined before we get there," Barnhart said. Barnhart said at the IRL's next test here [Daytona], most likely this time next year, the series may try different course configurations. Daytona Beach News Journal

[Editor's Note: As stated previously, very few fans go to Daytona to watch road course races, so if the IRL wants to save itself some embarrassment they will stay home.]