Papis tests at Kentucky for Evernham.

Italian Max Papis completed his long awaited second test behind the wheel of a Winston Cup car yesterday (Wednesday) when he got behind the wheel of the #91 Dodge owned by Ray Evernham at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway.

Papis turned more than 80-laps of the 1.5-mile tri-oval under the guidance of Evernham's research and development and test-team co-ordinator Sammy Johns and by the end of the day was just half a second shy of Evernham team leader Bill Elliott.

After making his stock car test debut for Travis Carter at the Lakeland Speedway last October, Papis saw several other potential testing deals fall through as he strove to secure a full-time drive in either NASCAR or open-wheel racing. While the 33 year-old former Arrows Formula One driver has no other firm commitments with Evernham at this point, the team will be expected to enter the #91 R&D Dodge Intrepid into at least one Winston Cup race later this year as per NASCAR's rules on testing.

"It was a very good experience being in a Winston Cup car. It is different than anything I have driven in the past," Papis. "The car is a lot lighter than I thought and has a different feeling with the downforce. I enjoyed every lap."

Spending the majority of the day getting acquainted with his new mount and the Kentucky oval Papis eventually worked his way down to a best time of 31.1-seconds, none too shabby when compared to Bill Elliott's best time of 30.6.

Making the test even more demanding for the Italian driver was the fact that more than half a dozen other Winston Cup teams were also present on Wednesday including Ultra Motorsports, PPI Motorsports, BACE Motorsports and MBV Motorsports.

"This is a far different car than what Max is used to driving," said a suitably impressed Johns. "It's very heavy and doesn't stop the same. Max has some definite potential and made some headway today. He got close to or over-met my expectations. I helped him with how to get on and off the racetrack, which lane to use and to make sure he wasn't in the way of the other cars testing. He got along real well with the other drivers and they seemed to respond well to him. I've been doing a lot of driver development lately and found Max a pleasure to work with."

"Sammy really helped coach me along," added Papis. "He talked to me throughout the test and made me feel comfortable in the car, on the track and with the other cars. I really want to thank him for all he added to my experience. Also, I really enjoyed getting some advice from Bill Elliott. It was a great honour to get advice from someone like him who has so many racing achievements in this sport. He gave me some really good ideas and helped make me comfortable.

"I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with Ray Evernham several times," said Papis. "I think he saw that I had a lot of will and determination and decided to give me a test. I want to thank him and Dodge for this great opportunity."

In addition to searching for a ride in NASCAR, Papis has also been linked with several potential rides in the Champ Car World Series, notably with Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing, and as a candidate for one of several spare seats for the Indy 500.