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New Ford Engine Heads to debut at All-Star Race UPDATE 2:

May 19, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • Ford Racing’s new engine will make its debut this week in the Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. “The old model is worn out,” engine builder/team owner Robert Yates says. “Hopefully, we’ll have equal power against the competition in (the Challenge). We can only get 90 percent with the cars, we need the extra 10 percent that the engine can deliver. This is a move to take Ford, Ford engineering and Ford design back where they need to be.” Ford was expecting four engines would be available for competition, but which drivers would receive the new power plants had not been determined.(FoxSports/Sporting News)(5-17-2004)
    UPDATE: been told that Robert Yates Racing [RYR – I supplement the ‘guys’ income?] ran the new cylinder heads at Richmomnd this past week.(5-18-2004)
    UPDATE 2: The new Ford cylinder head is slated to be in five Ford Tauruses this weekend for the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. Engine builder Doug Yates said that #38-Elliott Sadler ran the new configuration at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night, a race in which he finished 12th and remained in 10th-place in the point standings. While the new engine now appears ready for action, Yates said a full fleet won’t be available until July at either Chicago, Loudon or Pocono. He explained how the system would work in the meantime during a phone interview on Tuesday morning. Doug Yates, Head Engine Builder – Roush-Yates Engines: “We raced it last week in the 38 car and the plan for this weekend is to have it in five cars based on our first five guys in points. So the 17, 97, 38, 88 and the 6 [cars] will have it this weekend and then from there we’ll evaluate it and start getting it ready to go full-time in the second half of the year.”(Team Ford Racing)(5-19-2004)