Full Throttle

Actually prior to arrival. Via Journal Now. I may have a few words on this later. My first thoughts are, so much for a smaller engine to save money, cut speeds and tossing restrictor plates in the wastebin.

NASCAR’s controversial engine of the future suddenly appears all but dead, according to engine builders and car owners, after the latest round of meetings between NASCAR executives and a few Nextel Cup team owners.

However, that would lock in the current Toyota and Dodge engine designs as still technically superior to the present Ford and Chevrolet engines. And it would leave Honda - widely expected to make a run into NASCAR racing - with a clean sheet of paper to design its own new NASCAR V-8, which rivals worry would be even better than any engine in the sport right now.

NASCAR’s engine of the future was to have debuted at California in February 2007. Now it has been pushed back to 2009 or 2010.

Add to that, word that NASCAR is apparently working with Honda on an engine development operation for the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, and it’s easy to see why the NASCAR garage here has been in such turmoil the past 48 hours.

That’s not the only reason. NASCAR’s turnaround in the engine of the future comes as NASCAR executives are also considering a dramatic change in the Busch tour schedule that could pair the Busch series with the Indy Racing League during a number of doubleheader weekends in 2006, according to some top NASCAR team owners. In turn, NASCAR would hope to raise the television profile of its struggling Truck series by moving it to several Saturdays as part of doubleheaders with the Nextel Cup tour.

The NASCAR sports world runs on a number of big tracks, 11/2 miles to 2 miles around, many built within the past few years, and to keep those tracks profitable it is important to have a viable Indy-car series. But the IRL has struggled, with few big sponsors and low TV ratings.

ABC, which got a big ratings boost from Danica Patrick’s performance in the Indy 500, is apparently not pleased with ad sales in general for its IRL events. And the issue of TV ad sales, not just for IRL races but also for all NASCAR races too, appears to be playing a large role behind-the-scenes in some of the technical and scheduling issues under consideration. NASCAR’s Truck series has, like the IRL, been largely unable to attract high-dollar sponsorships.

“When the Truck race here is on Speed (a cable channel) and gets tape delayed, you’ve got problems,” - Bill Davis, a Truck and Cup owner

In fact, NASCAR’s Truck series is in trouble and needs a big shot in the arm, some team owners say - a big TV shot in the arm. “When the Truck race here is on Speed (a cable channel) and gets tape delayed, you’ve got problems,” Bill Davis, a Truck and Cup owner, said. “And the Truck race was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. on Friday, which is not exactly prime time to begin with.”

Detroit car makers, though they like the idea of a Truck series for marketing their products, have been balking lately at having to underwrite the tour.

Davis’ solution: Truck-Cup doubleheader weekends, instead of Busch-Cup doubleheaders, and pair the Busch series instead with the struggling Indy Racing League.

Indeed, there has been talk for several months among NASCAR officials about revamping the Busch series in some way, still undetermined, to make it more than just a minor-league Saturday version of Sunday’s Nextel Cup races. But track promoters love having Cup drivers in Saturday Busch fields, because that makes the Saturday races more attractive to fans. And Cup team owners have become the major supporters of the Busch series. Saturday’s top five Busch finishers here drive for top Cup team owners, and fully half the Busch fields are dominated by Cup drivers and Cup owners, a number growing almost weekly.

So the prospect of turning a large number of Busch-Cup weekends into Truck-Cup weekends and moving a number of Busch races to IRL weekends could have a major impact on Cup team owners.

On the engine front, Ford’s Jack Roush says that Toyota has the best engine design in the sport at the moment and Dodge has the second-best. GM officials agree, which is one reason that GM has been promoting NASCAR’s proposed new engine. Ford’s Roush, however, says that such a new engine would be very expensive, though he has reluctantly hired engine designers for the project.

Instead, the latest engine proposal on NASCAR’s desk is from car owner/ engine man Robert Yates, who has proposed to NASCAR president Mike Helton cutting 75 horsepower from the present 800-horsepower engines by going to a shorter-stroke engine.

When NASCAR first proposed its engine of the future in December, the goal was to put all the manufacturers back in a box by adding a number of technical specifications and to cut engine size from 358 cubic inches to 325 cubic inches, to chop about 100 horsepower.

NASCAR has had four major meetings with Ford, General Motors, Dodge and Toyota officials since December about the planned new engine, and the plans appeared to be moving slowly but smoothly ahead. Honda, though, has not been involved in any of the talks.

Now, however, NASCAR has abruptly changed tack, after listening to car owners’ complaints about the expense of both the engine change and a major future body change at the same time.

“The engine of the future was NASCAR’s idea,” GM engine specialist Jim Covey said. “When Toyota came in (four years ago), NASCAR felt it had things under control … but a few things got by them. So NASCAR said ‘We’ve got to have this box for when Toyota might come to Cup.

“NASCAR first wanted it for 2007. Then they pushed it back to 2008 when Ford said it didn’t think it could finish the project before then. But now with the car of the future coming too, some of the car owners it appears want it pushed back further.

“But will the engine of the future now be 2009 or 2010, and can we live with what we’ve got through 2010?

“When you ask NASCAR about the engine of the future right now, they say they don’t know.

“Toyota has done an outstanding job, and so has Dodge. But being the latest ones to the party they were able to pursue things we couldn’t.

“So the new engine objectives were to be similar to the common-template body rules - to give us all a box to work within.

“Now, however, it’s been moved far enough off into the future that we at GM are looking at what we can do now. Our current SB2 engine is over 10 years old. We’ve submitted two new engine packages to NASCAR, the R-99 and R-03, but they weren’t approved.

“All we’re asking for is a fair shot.”

On the issue of possible dramatic changes in Busch and Truck scheduling in 2006, Geoff Smith, who as head of Roush Racing has Truck, Busch and Cup teams, with drivers who run in more than one division, is worried.

“My personal belief is the Busch series works very well in the current model,” Smith said. “I know that non-Cup drivers will argue Cup drivers shouldn’t be in there because they take the money, but the other side is the Cup drivers fill seats on Saturday.

“And a Busch driver who can compete with Cup drivers on Saturday has a positive on his resume and his ability to go forward in his career.”