Goodyear completed a two-day test Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the Daytona 500 in February, the first race on the new asphalt surface.

A total of eighteen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers took to the track during the test, all of whom highly rated the new pavement on the 2.5-mile high-banked superspeedway.

"It's much smoother, has a tremendous amount of grip, but it's still Daytona," said Jeff Burton Burton. "They didn't try to change the banking from the bottom to the top. They just kept Daytona and put pavement on it. I'm glad that's what they did. Daytona is a track (that) has its own history, its own heritage. It's entrenched in what our sport is all about. So keeping Daytona Daytona was 100 percent the right thing to do but it has a whole lot more grip."

Kurt Busch is impressed with the efforts of the paving crew and track officials in producing a quality result.

"It's an impressive surface," Kurt Busch said. "There's been a lot of hard work done. Everybody should be proud of what they've accomplished to resurface it, give it a new look. It's just a new attitude. This is what 2011 will bring to start off our Sprint Cup season -- big, exciting time. I'm proud to be able to say I got a chance to race on the surface when it was redone."

The 53rd annual Daytona 500 will be held on Februaury 20, 2010. For more information fans can visit www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or call 1-800-PITSHOP.

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