NASCAR racing Dario Franchitti has made a strong start to his first year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, setting the pace in testing at Daytona among the Dodge runners in preparation for the season opener.

The Scot ran the third-fastest lap of the morning session on Monday at Daytona, and was the fastest Dodge runner all day in the single-car runs. Only Franchitti and Dale Earnhardt Jr were able to split the Toyotas on the first day of running.

Franchitti is happy with the way testing is going for him, but anticipates that the biggest part of the learning process will come when he starts running in the draft for the first time at the 2.5-mile oval, which will give him a feel for what his first Cup race will be like in February.

"The first day out was good," Franchitti said. "The car feels very good and it's driving well. With the single car runs there is not too much that we can do. When we start drafting that is when I'm going to start learning more.

"That is what I'm looking forward to and at the same time I'm kind of nervous about at the same time. That's when the learning really starts."

The current IRL IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 champion is a leading candidate for the rookie of the year honours in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, where he is likely to have a stiff contest with other former open-wheel drivers such as Patrick Carpentier and Sam Hornish Jr.

Next week Franchitti will join fellow Gannasi teamates in the Grand-Am Daytona 24 sports car racing twice around the clock.