NASCAR President Mike Helton made the official announcement Friday afternoon that effective January 1, 2009, testing in all three of NASCAR's national series in addition to the two regional series has been banned.

"We're doing this after a good deal of conversation that's been taking place since June regarding testing," Helton said Friday afternoon at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. "That conversation coupled with the continued turn of economic conditions has led us to this decision that we've announced today."

Helton went on to explain that there are still a number of details that have to be worked out and that more information will present itself in the next two or three weeks, yet NASCAR felt this decision needed to be made this weekend.

"But there was a sense of urgency, we felt, to tell the teams and the industry of the general decision to suspend testing before this weekend was complete. Because come Monday morning, everybody's focus will begin to be on '09," Helton said.

As it stands now, no teams will be allowed to test at any track NASCAR holds an event at in any of the series the testing ban applies to. Included in that will be the annual pre-season testing held in Daytona to kick off the season.

"The ultimate decision was that the best case scenario for this decision was no means no," Helton pointed out.

Throughout the garage area, drivers, crew chiefs and team owners alike agree that despite the ban on testing, teams will still find a way to test. The only difference will be the tracks they are able to go to. Typical testing facilities such as Nashville are no out of the question, while a track like Rockingham has now become a much more valuable asset.

"The sanction agreements with our racetracks calls for the track to agree to abide by NASCAR?s test policy," Helton added. "So that includes racetracks and the enforcement of that policy. Beyond that, it's more challenging, if not impossible for us to have an enforcement element we can lean on or utilize."

While team testing is now banned, Helton confirmed that Goodyear tire tests will continue with a bit of adjustments.

"In regards to Goodyear tire testing, that will be a continuing program," Helton went on to say. "Certainly there could be a special test if NASCAR felt like it was necessary because of some unknown today that could crop up along the season that would require the further development of a tire or some - a new situation at a racetrack. That's something that could pop up."

The driving force behind Friday's announcement seems to be the struggling economy. With the cost of running a NASCAR team getting more and more expensive, NASCAR saw eliminating testing as a way to help cut costs. Testing typically costs teams up to $60-70,000 - according to team owner Ray Evernham - with the figures easily reaching the millions of dollars by the end of a year. Mergers, lay offs and limited sponsorship dollars becoming more a reality, NASCAR hopes this will help ease the load on teams, but does not expect it to have an effect on the competition.