#88-Earnhardt Jr. lost and engine midway thru the 2nd Wed practice at Daytona International Speedway and the team will change engines, then it was mentioned on SPEED’s coverage that all the Hendrick Motorsports cars #24-Gordon, #48-Johnson, Earnhardt and #5-Mears will change engines as there is some sort of lifter problem. #66-Riggs team is changing engines, also uses Hendrick engines and the other teams that run Hendrick engines are checking them out: #09-Marlin, #87-Wallace, #70-Mayfield and #78-Nemechek [not changing engines]. Also #07-Bowyer lost an engine and is changing their engine. confirmed engine changes: #48-Johnson, #5-Mears, #24-Gordon, #66-Riggs, #96-Yeley, #07-Yeley and #88-Earnhardt Jr. that means these drivers have to fall to the rear of the pack before the drop of the green flag for the Gatorade Duel they are running. #84-Allmendinger’s team already changed engines over the past weekend. This does NOT effect where they start the Daytona 500. Team are allowed to change engines between the Duels and the Daytona 500.(2-13-2008) UPDATE: All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers — #48-Jimmie Johnson, #24-Jeff Gordon, #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. and #5-Casey Mears — will start in the back of the field in Thursday’s 150-mile qualifying races for the Daytona 500 after their engines were replaced on Wednesday afternoon. Jeff Andrews, HMS’s head engine builder, said the problem appears to be related to a batch of lifters. The problem also was discovered in the cars of #78-Joe Nemechek and #87-Kenny Wallace of Furniture Row Racing, and #66-Scott Riggs and #70-Jeremy Mayfield of Haas Racing. All four are powered by HMS engines. But the problem wasn’t contained to HMS. Toyota is bringing new engines from California for #44-Dale Jarrett and #84-A.J. Allmendinger. Joe Gibbs Racing is bringing new engines for #20-Tony Stewart and #96-J.J. Yeley. Yeley, who drives for the JGR satellite team Hall of Fame Racing, has replaced two engines since arriving at Daytona. Because the problem appears consistent among both manufacturers officials are speculating it is related to coating on the lifters that could have come from the same vendor. “We took engines back after the Bud Shootout, they look really good, looked great,” Andrews said. “So we are looking at a batch issue right now and trying to sort through some things to get the guys in Charlotte pointed in the right direction.” Chad Knaus, the crew chief for pole-sitter Johnson, said coating on the cam shaft appears to be getting on the lifters and filtering throughout the engine. “Definitely by Sunday we’ll have it all squared away,” he said. Johnson, Nemechek and Mears were slated for the first three starting spots of the first qualifying race with Earnhardt fifth before the engine changes. Riggs was eighth, meaning a lot of fast cars will begin the 60-lap event at the rear. Gordon would have started sixth in the second race that will determine the starting lineup behind Johnson and Michael Waltrip, who earned the front row for the 50th running of the 500 on Sunday. There also was an engine change in Clint Bowyer’s Richard Childress Racing #07 Chevrolet because of a broken rod. Richie Gilmore, who heads up the program that supplies engines for RCR and Dale Earnhardt Inc., said Bowyer’s problem was not related to what the others experienced. But because of those problems Gilmore said he’ll look over all three RCR and all four DEI cars before the qualifying races. “Everybody is going to be pulling stuff apart,” he said. “It might be a bigger issue.”(ESPN.com) AND Hendrick-built motors were not removed from the CNC/Haas Chevy of Jeremy Mayfield, the two Furniture Row Racing Chevys of Joe Nemechek and Kenny Wallace and the Miccosukee Indian Nation Chevrolet. But later Wednesday, the problem widened to include several Toyotas that also had their engines pulled for potentially similar problems with the lifters. The Toyota Camrys of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, A.J. Allmendinger and J.J. Yeley all were forced to switch engines.(Yahoo Sports)(2-14-2008)
