After two days of Nextel Cup Series testing and four on-track sessions, the No. 20 Chevrolet has been anywhere from third to 30th on the speed charts. And Tuesday afternoon substitute driver Mike McLaughlin posted the team's best speed to date: 186.614 mph.

While the defending series championship team is looking racy, the entire bowtie contingency is making its mark as a Chevy again led the afternoon testing at Daytona International Speedway.

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Jeff Gordon paced the session at 188.466 mph -- up from his 186.734 showing in the morning. He also led Monday's morning testing.

Chevrolet now had led all four test sessions. Bill Elliott was the front-runner in Monday's afternoon session, while Jimmie Johnson was quickest Tuesday morning.

Defending Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart, who is not at this week's testing session, met with the media via satellite from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday. And even though he is not behind the wheel at Daytona, he isn't letting his driving skills deteriorate during the down time.

From Grand Am's Rolex 24 At Daytona to the Midget Nationals' Chili Bowl, Stewart has remained in the driver's seat. He knows there will be plenty of time to become re-acclimated to the No. 20 Chevrolet.

"It's a great luxury for me," Stewart said of not having to attend Preseason Thunder. "Graciously enough, Mike McLaughlin has [tested] for me the last two years to allow me to go to the Chili Bowl. It's always been important to me to be able to go back and not forget where I came from.

"I mean, to go over and race Midgets and Sprint Cars when I have time is something that's all been very important to me. I think the fact that I think it's always made those guys even respect us more when we get to the Chili Bowl, the fact that we didn't go to Daytona and test and we thought enough about that race to come participate in it and it would be easy to be the champion of NASCAR this year and say, 'Oh, I'm not going to go do it this year, I'm going to enjoy that.'

"When I go to the Chili Bowl," he said, "I'm no different than anybody else there, and I really enjoy that event. So I think it makes them respect the fact that we care enough about that series to go back and do that every year."

	Mike McLaughlin Testing Monday morning session Pos. Car Speed 6 20a 185.927 15 20b 184.642 Monday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 7 20a 185.713 30 20b 183.869 Tuesday morning session Pos. Car Speed 3 20a 186.382 14 20b 185.216 Tuesday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 7 20a 186.614 19 20b 184.638

Stewart was able to scratch off a victory at the Brickyard from his to-do list last year, and now attention has turned to his 0-for-7 run in the Daytona 500 -- a stat that Stewart has given little second thought to.

"I'm really happy with what I've done," said Stewart, a two-time Cup champion. "I mean, there's a lot of guys that haven't won the Daytona 500, but I think they've had great careers. You look at Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin, they haven't won the Daytona 500, but I don't think anybody is going to say they haven't had a great career and successful career in NASCAR.

"Michael Waltrip has won the Daytona 500 twice and never won a championship, and he's won, I think, only [four] races in his career. I don't think anybody is going to say he's had a great career just because he's won the Daytona 500.

"It's a great accomplishment and for [Waltrip] to win the Daytona 500 twice. It is an awesome accomplishment," Stewart said, "but I don't think you can base your whole career off of one race. I think there's other determining factors on whether you've had a successful career in the series other than just one race."

Nonetheless, he knows what a victory in the Great American Race would mean.

"Our number one goal this year is to go win the Daytona 500," he said. "We've led enough laps [204] the last two years combined to win the race outright. ... Obviously with it being the biggest race on the schedule for the year, that's our number one goal. But once we get through Daytona, whether we win, lose, whatever happens there, you never stop wanting to win races.

"I'm going to want to come to Indianapolis and try to win the Brickyard back to back. I love being the guy that does things first. I would love to be the first guy to win the Brickyard back to back, and we want to win another championship.

"Those goals never go away once you accomplish them, they never stop," Stewart said. "Even though we had a great year last year, you always want to win more races, win more poles, set new records and continue hot streaks. So that stuff will continue."

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Gordon also is familiar with winning races, poles, setting records and hot streaks. A four-time Cup champion, he won the season-opening Daytona 500 then hit the skids and ultimately missed the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup.

However, a crew chief change -- and piling up the eighth-most points with one win, three-top five finishes and five top-10s in the final 10 races -- may have been a harbinger of things to come.

"We made a lot of changes and then changed some cars, changed some different things," Gordon said. "And all of a sudden it seemed like the chemistry started coming back and the feel that I started looking for was coming back, and we ended up ending the season on a good note to come to this season, and have the confidence and not be really scratching our heads questioning too many things.

"It's not that we should win a championship every year," he said, "but we certainly should be contending for race wins and on a fairly consistent basis and we should be up and battling in that championship in some way throughout the year. That's what we should be doing."

The first Cup testing period runs through Wednesday, with two sessions each day. This week's testing features drivers who were in odd-numbered positions (as of July 13, 2005). Even-numbered owners'-points drivers are scheduled for Jan. 16-18.

Truck Series drivers will be at the track Jan. 13-15, and the Busch Series will wrap Preseason Thunder on Jan. 20-22.

�?Hendrick mates set pace; Kahne still struggling

Inside the Numbers Tuesday evening testing Pos. Car Driver Speed 1 24 Jeff Gordon 188.466 2 36a Bill Elliott 188.025 3 38a Elliott Sadler 187.594 4 48 Jimmie Johnson 187.582 5 17a Matt Kenseth 186.982 6 38b Elliott Sadler 186.955 7 20a Mike McLaughlin 186.614 8 19a Jeremy Mayfield 186.521 9 43a Bobby Labonte 186.070 10 31 Jeff Burton 185.935 11 36b Bill Elliott 185.605 12 80b Jeff Fuller 185.468 13 80a Jeff Fuller 185.280 14 41 Reed Sorenson 185.166 15 21b Ken Schrader 185.018 16 8a Dale Earnhardt Jr. 184.805 17 17b Matt Kenseth 184.771 18 9b Kasey Kahne 184.657 19 20b Mike McLaughlin 184.638 20 9a Kasey Kahne 184.619 21 23a Mike Skinner 184.566 22 12a Ryan Newman 184.479 23 41x Reed Sorenson 184.422 24 4 Scott Wimmer 184.411 25 24b Jeff Gordon 184.117 26 12b Ryan Newman 183.906 27 8b Dale Earnhardt Jr. 183.891 28 23 Mike Skinner 183.404 29 40 David Stremme 183.404 30 40x David Stremme 183.400 31 1a Martin Truex Jr. 183.020 32 1b Martin Truex Jr. 198.016 33 78b Kenny Wallace 182.934 34 4a Scott Wimmer 182.467 35 78a Kenny Wallace 181.984