NASCAR says no to Texas Motor Speedway test date

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage wants a test session held at his facility before the Sprint Cup teams race there April 6. But NASCAR says he's not going to get one.

Concerned by a track-record 11 cautions Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and comments from some drivers who say Texas will be a bigger test for the new racecar, Gossage sent a release to the media inviting NASCAR to test at the Fort Worth facility prior to the Samsung 500. Although Clint Bowyer and Juan Montoya took part in a Goodyear tire test in January at Texas, it was not one of the six tracks chosen for an official open test like the one held in Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday.

Gossage proposed adding a test session, opening the track the Wednesday of race week for an additional practice session, or adding a Sprint Cup practice to the speedway's regular schedule of events on Thursday.

"My concern is that they did have an open test at Las Vegas and still had a record number of cautions, including three serious crashes involving former Cup champions," said Gossage, referring to wrecks involving Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. "We only have had a two-car Goodyear test so we could see a lot of crashes, and that causes me concern. I'm sure the teams would like as much data and track time as possible to reach that comfort level with the car and its performance at our speedway." More at NASCAR.com