#24-Jeff Gordon completed 500 miles in one of the new Chevrolet R07 engine last week in a tire test at Darlington Raceway. “The thing looked real nice, very good,” Hendrick engine assembly director Jeff Andrews said Sunday. “We were real pleased with the performance of the engine. Jeff said the engine felt real good. It wasn’t a marketable difference in power. It was really just a reliability test of parts and castings. The encouraging thing is we’ve taken something that is virtually brand new and we’ve come out of the box with it very equal and close to that power-wise.” Chevrolet officials had hoped that teams would see RCR use the engine for a full race weekend and put it in their main cars in the next few weeks. That probably won’t happen. Wimmer likely will attempt the April 15 race at Texas with the new engine for another race simulation try. RCR engine builder Danny Lawrence speculated that RCR’s three fulltime teams could use the engine for the Nextel All-Star Challenge, a non-points event, before using the engine for a points-paying race weekend.(SceneDaily.com)(3-20-2007)
