The countdown to the 50th running of the Great American Race seems to be accelerating now that there are just 20 days left to the Daytona 500 and even fewer - 12 days - until the Bud Shootout.

Preseason testing at Daytona is over, but NASCAR teams are hardly resting on their laurels. This week, they'll make a west coast swing for two important test sessions in Las Vegas and California.

The Cup series is testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday and at California Speedway on Thursday and Friday, while the Nationwide Series teams will be testing in Las Vegas on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday will be used as a travel day for most Cup teams, although the garage at California will be open for those wanting to work on their cars prior to taking the track Thursday morning.

On the whole, drivers don't look forward to the tedium of testing, but they are aware of the importance of these particular sessions, which will give teams a much better feel for the performance of the Car of Today on tracks that are more representative of the upcoming season as a whole than Daytona testing did.

"Luckily, we get a test at Las Vegas and California," observed Kyle Busch. "Those are going to be two pretty big tests with the mile and a half stuff, since teams have not been on the mile and a half tracks as much with this car. I think it's just going to be a learning experience for all of us to figure out what we need to know about these cars on the different race tracks."

While the restrictor plates utilized at Daytona make racing there all about the draft, the 1.5-mile tri-oval of Las Vegas and 2-mile oval of California will have teams working on both speed and handling issues that they hope will carry over to the majority of downforce racetracks throughout the year.

"Vegas and California, point blank, is about being fast," said driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, Ryan Newman. "Getting the car to ride good and figuring out ways to create advantages that are becoming fewer and fewer over other teams.” While the 2008 cumulative (two session) testing speeds at Daytona may not be as important in the big-season picture as they are to the 500 itself, there were some interesting stats to come out of testing, including the surprising fact that just one Chevrolet - the No. 01 car of DEI rookie Regan Smith - cracked the top 10 for fastest overall lap speed.

There were five Dodges in the top 10, including Kasey Kahne with the fastest lap speed overall at 189.11 miles per hour, along with three Toyotas. Matt Kenseth was the only Ford driver to rank in the top 10, coming in at 7th

In other NASCAR news this week, CEO Brian France created quite a stir with his State of Sport speech, during which he seemed to backpedal from the pace of change that has been the trademark of his tenure, alienating many longtime fans. France vowed to take a "back to basics" approach this season and to try to welcome the sports more tradition-minded fans back into the fold.

Of course, as long as NASCAR is racing the Car of Tomorrow/Today under the Chase for the Championship points system while utilizing the lucky dog pass, the top-35 qualifying rule, and other innovations of the France era, older fans will most likely not be appeased.

Still, France's acknowledgement that there is a problem gives rise to hope for fans who feel the sport has left them behind.

As they say, admitting you have a problem is the first step - right?