In the wake of the new Ford Fusion dominating Wednesday morning's test session at Daytona International Speedway, the Chevrolets of Hendrick Motorsports duo Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson again bolted to the top of the speed charts in the afternoon's test-ending session.

Gordon was fastest for the third time in six sessions, posting a fast-lap speed of 189.298 mph. Teammate Jimmie Johnson was second (189.195), while Matt Kenseth, who paced the morning session, was third (189.024).

Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon continue to be fast at Daytona. Credit: Don Bok/ISC Images and Archives

In Wednesday morning's test, three of the top five fastest times were Ford drivers, led by Kenseth at 188.403 mph. However, in the afternoon he was the only Fusion driver in the top 15 among the 31 cars that tested.

"This test is actually, more so than on-the-track stuff, is good for getting [the] whole group working together and getting in a routine and a system of changing things and everybody knows what their responsibilities are and that type of thing," Kenseth said.

"You kind of work the new guys in a little bit and work the rust off the other ones a little bit when you test at Daytona and when you go test at Las Vegas, so when you come down here for the real deal everybody's kind of ready to go."

A Chevy has won the past four races at Daytona -- and the past three Daytona 500s -- and one driver is hoping some of the manufacturer's good fortune rubs off on his team as it looks to overcome a less-than-stellar 2005 season.

	ARCHIVE NASCAR.COM takes you inside the garages and breaks down the action from Daytona.  �?nbsp;  Complete coverage, click here New and improvedJeff Gordon knows the road back to the top won't be easy Preseason ThunderMarty Smith catches up with Jimmie Johnson at Daytona testing Daytona testingCheck out all the videos from Preseason Thunder Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Jeff Burton didn't mince words when he assessed the No. 31 Chevrolet team's effort last year: "We pretty much took an ass-whipping."

Burton, who ran his first full season with Richard Childress Racing in 2005, was winless for the fourth consecutive year (his last victory came Oct. 28, 2001, at Phoenix), and finished 18th in the point standings for the second year in a row.

"The eye-opener for me was how we prepared for '05," Burton said. "The amount of [research and development] done on the cars, chassis, bodies and the aero program was lagging behind. That really opened my eyes, and when we went into '05, I knew if we ran well it was more because we were lucky than that we had put a good plan together.

"I think each department -- whether it be engines or engineering or chassis or whatever -- didn't have that goal, 'This is what we have to do, this is how we're going to do it,' and it just wasn't all pulled together."

What ensued was a season that featured only three top-five finishes and six top-10s -- and a major reorganization of RCR's personnel and thinking.

"There's really no department that hasn't been changed in a big way, especially around the performance," Burton said. "I think we come into this year with much better engines, we come into this year with much better cars, we come into this season with much better engineering support.

"I honestly believe that you will see an increase in performance on the track."

If Preseason Thunder is any indication, Burton may be spot-on.

Jeff Burton Testing Monday morning session Pos. Car Speed 11 31x 184.983 19 31 184.483 Monday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 17 31 184.642 26 31x 184.109 Tuesday morning session Pos. Car Speed 13 31 185.235 27 31x 184.226 Tuesday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 10 31 185.935 Wednesday morning session Pos. Car Speed 12 31x 186.935 16 31 186.800 Wednesday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 9 31x 188.103 14 31 187.762

The team unloaded Monday and consistently ran 184 mph in both sessions. On Tuesday the team's best effort was 185 mph. Wednesday featured drafting and the team continued to improve, falling a tick short of 187 mph.

He was ninth-fastest Wednesday afternoon at 188.103 mph as Chevys had seven of the top 10-fastest speeds.

The new testing rules for 2006 limit the tracks at which teams can run R&D sessions, and Burton remains undecided about how it will affect teams. The policy sets a schedule for when and where Cup tests are to be conducted. The scheduled tests will be the only opportunities teams will have to test at Cup tracks.

There will be six test locations: Charlotte, Daytona Las Vegas, Richmond, Homestead-Miami and Indianapolis. Teams still will be able to schedule tests at facilities that do not play host to Cup events, such as Kentucky.

"The thing I don't like about it is, this year in particular, there's some teams that have 300 sets of tires stockpiled, and there's some teams that have four," Burton said. "Some teams are still going to be able to go to Kentucky and to Memphis and Nashville and those kinds of places and be tested and there's other teams that aren't.

"I think what we ought to do is give [teams] tires to go test at those places, like four or five times that you can go do those kind of tests and give you tires to do that. I don't like the fact that some people can go 20 times and some people can only go twice."

In any case, Burton knows that taking care of business on the track starts at the team's headquarters. "We have addressed every single part of what makes the cars go fast -- with people, with hardware, with engineering, with a lot of things," he said of RCR's offseason shuffling. "Yes, just an improvement keeps you the same; we had to make a leap.

what's this? $150,000 Mortgage for $483/MonthCompare up to 4 free offers. Refinance and cash out for a down... pickamortgage.net Mortgage Rates as Low as 2.9%Up to 4 free offers. Compare and choose the best rate. Quick and... homeloantrust.com Consumer Car Leasing KitComprehensive online automobile leasing kit. Contains lease deal... leaseguide.com >if(!(location.hostname.indexOf('nascar.com')>-1)){cnnAddCSI('contextualLinks','/.element/ssi/sect/promos/slinks/1.0/static_story.html','');}else{cnnAddCSI('contextualLinks','http://cl.nascar.com/ctxtlink/jsp/nascar/cl/2.0/nascar-story.jsp','site=nascar&query=sports%3Anascar%20premium&cgroup=headlinescup');}</SCRIPT> <IFRAME id=iframecontextualLinks style="VISIBILITY: hidden" name=iframecontextualLinks align=right src="http://cl.nascar.com/ctxtlink/jsp/nascar/cl/2.0/nascar-story.jsp?domId=contextualLinks&time=1137117992281&site=nascar&query=sports%3Anascar%20premium&cgroup=headlinescup" width=0 height=0></IFRAME>

"When I stepped into Childress, I knew I was stepping into something that needed a lot of work. You don't fire drivers, and you don't hire crew chiefs and you're not making changes in your company if everything is going well.

"I knew we had major changes that had to happen. I'm not patient with it, but I'm understanding of it. Last year we were rebuilding. This year we have to perform."

Truck Series drivers will be at the track Jan. 13-15, while the Cup Series' even-numbered owners'-points drivers (as of July 13, 2005) are scheduled for Jan. 16-18. The Busch Series will wrap Preseason Thunder on Jan. 20-22.

�?Truex behind in testing; Kenseth paces Wednesday AM

Inside the Numbers Wednesday's evening testing Pos. Car Driver Speed 1 24b Jeff Gordon 189.298 2 48b Jimmie Johnson 189.195 3 17b Matt Kenseth 189.024 4 40x David Stremme 189.000 5 1a Martin Truex Jr. 188.663 6 80b Jeff Fuller 188.426 7 12b Ryan Newman 188.229 8 8a Dale Earnhardt Jr. 188.222 9 31x Jeff Burton 188.103 10 20a Mike McLaughlin 188.029 11 43b Bobby Labonte 187.903 12 9b Kasey Kahne 187.813 13 12a Ryan Newman 187.790 14 31 Jeff Burton 187.762 15 23a Mike Skinner 187.739 16 38a Elliott Sadler 187.621 17 41 Reed Sorenson 187.613 18 19a Jeremy Mayfield 187.613 19 36b Bill Elliott 187.578 20 9a Kasey Kahne 187.563 21 21a Ken Schrader 187.531 22 17a Matt Kenseth 187.508 23 8b Dale Earnhardt Jr. 187.188 24 19b Jeremy Mayfield 186.931 25 20b Mike McLaughlin 186.536 26 1b Martin Truex Jr. 186.012 27 43a Bobby Labonte 185.997 28 4 Scott Wimmer 185.801 29 23 Mike Skinner 183.027 30 4a Scott Wimmer 178.696 31 80a Jeff Fuller 000.000