It’s Official: Toyota’s Daytona Engines are Stronger than the Rest
Toyota’s Dave Blaney could be the Daytona 500 sleeper
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
By Mike Mulhern
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
If Dale Earnhardt Jr. is to win this Daytona 500, it looks like he’s got a sizeable horsepower disadvantage to overcome, judging from NASCAR’s post-150s chassis dyno tests which showed Toyota’s Tony Stewart had at least a 15 horsepower edge at his rear wheels over Chevy’s Earnhardt in Thursday’s twins.
And Richard Childress’ Chevy engines were some 30 horsepower off the Toyotas, which is some concern in both the Childress camp and with GM officials.
NASCAR didn’t post any official numbers, but Stewart’s engine – built by Mark Cronquist, head of Joe Gibbs’ motor shop – pulled around 462 to 464 effective horsepower, according to those familiar with the results. That’s about 15 horsepower more than Earnhardt had and about 30 horsepower more than Chevy’s Kevin Harvick.
“We’ve got some work to do,” was all Clint Bowyer, Harvick’s teammate at Childress’, would say.
Ford’s Doug Yates, the veteran engine builder and now full car owner, had expressed worries about the powerful Toyota engines during January testing. However yesterday Yates was in a better mood: “From Talladega till now, we’ve made great gains, and we’re close. But I didn’t need a chassis dyno to know who has the best engine here.
“I do feel better now than I did at Talladega about our chances. Our horsepower was in the high 450s. But our problem is we’ve got to get our car driving good…and keep the tires on it. And if we can do that, we may get some good results here…and then go on to Fontana.
“But it’s clear that what Toyota started last year is coming to fruition. And the standard Toyota model of ‘coming in slow, and then signing the best teams, and putting heat on people’ it’s here.
“We’ve got a new engine we plan to submit (to NASCAR) in September, and we wanted to see and evaluate what everybody else is doing first. And I know what I like right now. So we’ll just go from there.”
Chevrolet’s Pat Suhy, the racing field boss, concedes Stewart’s Toyota engine was indeed that much stronger than Earnhardt’s, and Suhy said all the engine numbers “show we’ve got work to do.
“We’ve just got to go take a look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And our teams have to take a hard look at what they’re doing. There’s no fundamental reason that all the Chevys can’t be the same….and there’s no fundamental reason that they can’t be as good as Toyota and Ford.
“The Dodges ran strong (Chip Ganassi’s Reed Sorenson in particular), and there was a Ford or two in there. That tells me fundamentally we don’t have a problem.
“I think the best Hendrick engine here was eight (horsepower) down to the best Toyota engine. And I think a good driver here can make up eight horsepower easily.”
As Earnhardt perhaps showed in beating Stewart to win Saturday’s Shootout.
Dale Jarrett (left) and teammate Michael Waltrip are back in the game
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
“Toyota definitely has more horsepower, and the momentum is going to get harder and harder to overcome,” Dodge’s Robbie Loomis, general manager at Petty Enterprises, says. “And, yes, they’re really strong on the track too, with Stewart and Michael Waltrip, who’s a good drafter too. But I think they can be overcome in the race by handling.
“And I’m sure by the end of the week Jeff (Gordon) will be tired of hearing about Junior, so by Sunday things could be a lot different.”
The other side of the engine situation here, though, is durability, which has been a major question in the Toyota camp and in the Hendrick camp.
While Toyota’s Lee White, the company’s field director, insists none of his engines have actually blown up, he did point to four teams that had problems with “premature wear” of engine valve lifters in engines for Dale Jarrett, Stewart, AJ Allmendinger and J. J. Yeley. White says he’s comfortable the problem has been solved. “And in my opinion it’s not a ‘Toyota’ problem,” White said, “because Bill Davis hasn’t had any of these problems with his Terry Elledge-built engines.”
However others within the Toyota camp aren’t as confident the problems have been fixed.
Toyota’s Lee White (center) and engine man Terry Elledge (left)
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
What might be going on at Hendrick’s is not clear either. White said he didn’t think now that Hendrick men were facing the same problems as Toyota but that Hendrick might have had an issue with qualifying engine setups.
Dave Blaney’s engine problem Thursday was not a blown engine, White said, but a mis-set oil line, which dragged on the track and broke.
The rash of engine issues, White says “shows that everyone is pushing this to the very edge, because it’s the Daytona 500.
“We ran all January at Daytona, at Las Vegas and at Fontana, and never had an issue, with engines from three different builders. Then we come here and have this issue.
“Hey, maybe this is just because this week we’re running 400 RPM less than in January, with a different gear.
“I’m just glad we found our problem last Friday, instead of Wednesday like Hendrick did.
“If Mark Cronquist is telling his drivers that everything is good, I think they’re happy. And our other guys are happy too.”
But White won’t accept the nod as Toyota favored to win the Daytona 500: “No way,” he protests. “We’re the underdogs. The Hendrick guys are still the ones with the bull’s eye on their backs.
“And, good, I hope they sweat a little bit. They won half the races last year; they need to sweat a little.”