NASCAR is taking a look at all the manufacturers engines and has pulled engines from nine cars following the Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland. The engines will be put on the dyno machines back at the R&D Center in Charlotte to check the horsepower from all manufacturers.(7-12-2008)
UPDATE: NASCAR officials took 10 engines from Nationwide Series cars amid clamor from non-Toyota teams claiming they need help engine-wise to compete with the Toyotas. It was the third time this year that NASCAR has taken engines for evaluation. It did so at Atlanta in March and Milwaukee two weeks ago. Toyota has won 14 races in the series this year, while Chevy has won four and Ford has won two. Were continuing our study on our competitive analysis and trying to balance the competition in the garage, which were kind of tasked to do, Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash said following the Dollar General 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. Theres a lot of rumor in the garage where things are at, and thats why we want to make sure that we get the actual data. Among the possible things NASCAR could do is change the spacer that limits air flow in the engine. NASCAR began using the spacer this year. Balash said it would take about three or four days for NASCAR to run all the engines on its engine dynamometers. We have a lot of things that are available to us, Balash said. Based upon where the numbers shake out is what we would select. [Changing] spacers is one of the options. Theres three or four different ways you can use spacers. But we have to get to the numbers first and see whats before we would even speculate what we would do, if we would do anything.(SceneDaily.com)(7-12-2008)
UPDATE 2: Nationwide Series diretor Joe Balash said Friday at Gateway International Raceway that NASCAR is still pouring over data culled from dynomometer tests on 10 engines pulled from cars after last weeks race at Chicagoland Speedway. Thats a lot of data to go through, Balash said. Were disseminating the data to the teams right now, but as much information as weve gathered over 10 engines, its going to take us awhile to have our engineers go through and look at all the data before any decisions are made. Balash wouldnt say if NASCAR had found any patterns in the data and said the sanctioning body also needs to compare the latest data with dyno runs earlier this year after the Atlanta and Milwaukee races. (SceneDaily.com)(7-19-2008)
UPDATE 3: NASCAR tried to even out the competition in the Nationwide Series on Wednesday by ordering all teams using Toyota motors to squeeze down their horsepower before this weekend’s race in Indianapolis. NASCAR recently sent 10 different motors for testing, and found that David Reutimann’s Toyota was the best with an estimated 3 percent horsepower advantage over the competition.(Associated Press)(7-23-2008)
UPDATE 4: NASCAR issued a technical bulletin Tuesday amending the Nationwide Series Rule Book. Effective as of July 23, 2008, section 20A 5.10.4 is amended as follows:
At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing less than 4.470 inches must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.125-inch diameter holes. At all Events, unless otherwise specified, all engines with a cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more must compete using a tapered spacer with four (4) 1.100-inch diameter holes. Unless otherwise authorized, the carburetor restrictor will be issued by NASCAR.
Eventually, all teams that upgrade to new engine packages will be subject to this rule modification, said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. Over the years in our sport, weve taken steps on numerous occasions to help maintain a level playing field among our competitors and we will continue to do so.(NASCAR PR)(7-23-2008)
