Monster Energy Graves Yamaha's Josh Hayes (Photo: Evan Williams)

The big circuit's nature makes it a poor comparison to the "real" racetracks later on the schedule but some telling signs emerged. There was no gasping for air by Hayes' bike -- or that of teammate Josh Herrin, for that matter -- at the end of straights. Hayes won the first race (Yamaha's first at Daytona since Russell won in ’98) in a rout and managed to lose the second, but it was related more to a flub exiting the last chicane than a lack of power.

The addition of Herrin to the Yamaha effort provided some insights into how the R1 works. With Hayes, the R1 looks like it's set up a little twitchy but it's fast. Herrin was also quick but he looked to be really fighting it a great deal of the time, most notably when he dropped it in Race 1.

Hayes has started using some TC, although he was still lighting it up in the infield at Daytona.

Blake Young’s Suzuki GSX-R1000 has some new engine internals and different forks but things didn’t appear to be that different away from the controls. The big Zook looked great on top end again and a very capable tool all around the track.

The biggest issue for Young isn’t the bike. Like last year, he played catch-up all weekend. But he’s fantastic at it. He picked up the pace for Saturday, ran his race around ten seconds faster for the 15 laps, and managed to steal a win from Hayes.

Roger Hayden took two thirds on the National Guard Jordan Suzuki -- good results for sure. The team struggled with both ends of their bike early in the weekend but it finally came good in the warm-up on Saturday and then Hayden was very fast at the Homestead test following Daytona.

Roger was able to handle the pesky Herrin in Race 2.

The Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki is improved over the 2011 version, says Hayden. Roger seems poised to challenge for wins if he can stick with the leaders like he did at Mid-Ohio and New Jersey last year.

So at Daytona, everyone looked improved but we’ll have to wait until Atlanta to really see what's going on.

“Daytona has been (a Suzuki track.) We don’t know how our improvements are going to equate to the other tracks during the season,” said Hayes. “At the tracks during the season, top speed wasn’t what hurt us. Blake was able to jump out of the corner well. I think we were able to make other improvements to the bike.

"As for Daytona, I think the two tests we did, we tried some new things we liked. I tried some new settings and some new and different lines. I think we showed up at Daytona a lot better prepared than last year. I know I showed up a lot better. Road Atlanta, it could go back to the same old story, but I think we improved and I think we will continue to improve.”