NASCAR Feeds The Conspiracy Theorists

23rd July 2008

NASCAR Feeds The Conspiracy Theorists

posted in Commentary, Nationwide Series |

Toyota Horsepower Here’s NASCAR’s official headline on their announcement of a horsepower decrease for all Nationwide Series Toyotas:

“Rule Amendment Brings NASCAR Nationwide Series Engines In Line”.

Specifically they are targeting all engines “with a cylinder bore spacing of 4.470 inches or more”. Those engines will have to compete with a tapered spacer with four 1.100-inch diameter holes.

At the moment the Toys are the only manufacturer with a block that fits those parameters and NASCAR will impose the same restrictions on the other three when, and if they introduce blocks of the same dimensions.

Here’s my reasoning that led to the title of this piece:

The general assumption by some fans is, and specifically by all the Toyota haters among us, the Toys have enjoyed a large HP advantage thus far in the NNS.

Of the ten engines recently tested David Reutimann’s Toyota was the best with an estimated 3 percent horsepower advantage over the competition. JGR’s No. 18 car - which Busch drove to victory at Chicago right before the motors were tested - was second.

Assuming a NNS engine puts out 700hp 3% would equate to a 21 hp advantage Reutimann’s Toy had a Chicago where he won the pole and finished 5th. ChicagoLand was his only pole of the year and he’s not had a single series win, but has been a consistent finisher in the series with 7 top fives and 11 top tens.

Kyle Busch won that event, at less than a 3% advantage by NASCAR’s own numbers, by leading 101 of the 200 laps.

Here’s my problem with this process.

By reacting to this single test, on engines from a single event it’s just a small snapshot. I liken it to taking a single Polaroid of Miss Belle Jangles. You get a single titillation, but not the Full Monte for lack of a better term.

They should be conducting a series of tests covering several events not a single event, then react to whatever the average advantage is.

And then, there’s the elephant that’s rumbling through the room.

It’s not the Toyota’s that have been dominate thus far, it’s the JGR Toyotas, having won 13 of the 21 events held to date. Also note the JGR #20 has chalked up 9 of those wins and as tested was fifth in horsepower behind Reutimann, the #18 and two Roush Fords.

I’m thinkin’ maybe… just maybe, NASCAR should get off their duff and approve GM’s Cup-side R07 engine for Nationwide use rather than tinker with tapered plates. Of course that would lead to Jack Roush to having another temper tantrum.

“If they want to kill that series, go right ahead,” Jack has said of the pending R07 approval. (Psst Jack, they’re doing just fine with that process by “giving” the NNS a CoT in 2009. But thanks anyway)

I’ll give NASCAR credit for one thing.

They just killed the “Toyota-bought-their-way-in-and-NASCAR-has-been-sucking-Toy-Kool-Aid-ever-since” conspiracy theory.

Technorati Tags: NASCAR, NNS, JGR, David Reutimann, Toyota

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Commentary, Nationwide Series. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

1 On July 23rd, 2008, Tim Zaegel said:#

Very good dissection of this whole charade, Mark. One thing I have to point out, though, is that the rule they implimented was not based on a single testing, as they also tested the engines (albeit on a smaller scale) following Milwuakee. My thought on it is that the only advantage Toyota has is that they put their money in the right spot. I’ve always understood it that GM and Ford could have converted to the same engine styles that Toyota’s been running, but the transition would have cost them quite a bit of coin that they’re not willing to fork over for the sake of the Nationwide Series.

posted on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm

2 On July 23rd, 2008, Marc said:#

A couple things on the Milwuakee ref.

None of the current articles on the rule change mention it being used in shifting policy and if it was I have a question….

Was it the same 10 engines, or rather from the same ten teams as tested after Chi-town. If not the data obtained is worthless for averaging into the possible outcome.

As for GM, Dodge and Ford they only have themselves to blame.

Way back when, 3 years exactly, NASCAR’s engine-of-the-future died a slow death because the then current Toyota and Dodge engine designs were technically superior to then Ford and Chevrolet engines, and Ford and GM thought the new design favored them even more.

The Mahogany table fight got too ugly and NASCAR gave up any thoughts of a new engine

posted on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 pm

3 On July 24th, 2008, peterg said:#

At the end of the day, Toy turned up with a better engine & it’s legal….nuff said.

posted on July 24th, 2008 at 2:22 am

4 On July 24th, 2008, Marc said:#

I agree to a point Peter. They along with the rest were given a new engine package/design to work with when the Toys entered NASCAR because they didn’t have a V-8 pushrod block on the Toy production line.

As a result they have had the newest of the new. Chevy just last year rolled out a block based on the new approved design but it hasn’t been approved to run in the Nationwide series yet.

The reality is it’s not the Toys per-se but the Toys built by the Gibbs team, the rest of the Toys are suckin’ buttermilk trying to catch-up.

posted on July 24th, 2008 at 3:09 am

5 On July 24th, 2008, Tim Zaegel said:#

I don’t know how many engines they tested after Milwuakee, or whose they were for that matter, but nascar.com stated that the dyno tests after that race had Toyota peaking at 632, Dodge at 628, 612 for Chevy, and 611 for Ford.

posted on July 24th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

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