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NASCAR seeking to find if Nationwide Toyotas have horsepower advantage

By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Article Rating: 1.7
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Todd Warshaw / Getty Images for NASCAR

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MADISON, Ill. – Nationwide Series director Joe Balash said at Gateway International Raceway that NASCAR is still poring over data culled from dynomometer tests on 10 engines pulled from cars after last week’s race at Chicagoland Speedway.

NASCAR took engines from three Toyotas, three Chevrolets, two Dodges and two Fords to compare horsepower numbers. Some competitors have complained that Toyotas enjoy as much as a 25-horsepower advantage this season as Camrys have won 14 of the 20 races and nine of the 16 poles contested this year.

“That’s a lot of data to go through,” Balash said. “We’re disseminating the data to the teams right now, but as much information as we’ve gathered over 10 engines, it’s going to take us awhile to have our engineers go through and look at all the data before any decisions are made.”

Balash wouldn’t 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.

As to what changes are made, Balash said he wouldn’t talk about what NASCAR might do.

Also, Balash said brake calipers taken from Carl Edwards’ No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford last weekend were unapproved parts, but because the violation was a first offense, no penalties were handed down.

“The two front calipers we took from the car were not on our approved brake list,” Balash said. “As we have done on some other parts, the first offense is we just take the components from the team.”

Average Rating: 1.7

Comments

24 responses to "NASCAR seeking to find if Nationwide Toyotas have horsepower advantage"
  1. 1
    4da88 said:
    Jul 19, 2008 at 4:06 PM

    It is about time. Now if they will only make it right.

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  2. 2
    Chrissie Bennett said:
    Jul 19, 2008 at 6:08 PM

    Yes hopefully they will make it right in the Nationwide series, they need to make it right in the cup series to.

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  3. 3
    Frank Alford said:
    Jul 19, 2008 at 9:21 PM

    I believe they will once they figure exactly how much of an advantage Toyota has and where.

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  4. 4
    Worm Dirt said:
    Jul 19, 2008 at 11:04 PM

    Folks... are you sincerely telling me that if Nascar discovers that some Teams have discovered ways within the rules for their engines to produce more horespower than their competition, that YOU CONDONE taking action to handicap their efforts????? It's a competition!!!...the name of the game is to work hard and FIND AN ADVANTAGE! Besides the three people above, who else out there wants to add their name to the list of excuse-making pessimists that ignore the FACT that ONLY ONE TEAM seems to be doing well with Toyota this year????? Your opinions are definitley widespread, but PLEASE don't mistake that as somehow justifying your spineless finger-pointing. The truth will be revealed in time. SOme of it was revealed tonight. AND many of you are in for a rude awakening!!! This type of thing is an embarassment.

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  5. 5
    anonymous said:
    Jul 20, 2008 at 6:19 AM

    Leave it to the dirty worm to provide another one of his mindless rants. He takes great pride in providing insults to everyone that posts on this site. He doesn't like the opinions of others and loves to call names such as excuse making pessimists and spinless finger pointers. He wants everyone to see things his way, nobody is allowed to think for themselves and form an opinion. He is right, always right and shame on us for thinking otherwise. The only thing that is an embarassment is his postings. Last year everyone was screaming about the Chevy "advantage", this year it's the Toyota "advantage". Instead of criticizing all the other "lowly" people for their opinion, take your cause to the NASCAR chain.

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  6. 6
    Worm Dirt said:
    Jul 20, 2008 at 11:37 AM

    Nice try.... Look... just like there are two ways to view a glass of water...half-full or half-empty....There are two ways for you to look at Joe Gibbs SUCCESS w/ Toyota. Either you give them credit for their hard work and determination.... OR .... you make claims that they are cheating WITHOUT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE. So, please please please explain to me how "excuse-making", "pessimistic", "spineless", "finger-pointing" etc. do not fit perfectly into this discussion? Why does the truth about this issue frighten you so much?

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  7. 7
    Chrissie Bennett said:
    Jul 20, 2008 at 12:14 PM

    Worm why don't you comment on the story like other people do instead of insulting people? I'm just asking a question so don't go calling me names or insulting me. I'm allowed to my opinion just as much as you are.

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  8. 8
    Anonymous said:
    Jul 20, 2008 at 1:00 PM

    Mr. Worm Dirt are you saying that NASCAR does not have a right to test the horse power all of the makes of cars that race that race in NASCAR? NASCAR has done this may times to determine if engine rules favor one make or another. In the Nationwide series it is not just Gibbs Toyota’s that seam to have an advantage. David Reutimann was the fastest car until he crashed at Gateway that would be a Michael Waltrip car.

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  9. 9
    Anonymous said:
    Jul 20, 2008 at 1:42 PM

    Take-off the STUPID restricter plate NASCAR put-on this year & LET 'EM RUN!

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  10. 10
    emily bagwell said:
    Jul 20, 2008 at 8:17 PM

    NASCAR should have already done something about Toyota before it got this far---wonder why they are acting now? What ya think, Worm? Finding out the truth sure as heck won't embarass me. Guess cheating is a new phenomonon for NASCAR---hasn't happened before---is that what you are trying to say?Let's hope not---that would blow all your theories out of the water.

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  11. 11
    Scott Baker said:
    Jul 21, 2008 at 7:33 AM

    Ridiculous that it takes NASCAR weeks to go through the data. Either the engines comply or they don't. DOES NOT take weeks to analyze. They are getting to be more like politicians than a simple racing authority. It is situations like this that help to undermine the racing public's trust in the organization.

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  12. 12
    Gladys Bedwell said:
    Jul 21, 2008 at 5:25 PM

    NASCAR has the right to see if there is an illegal advantage to Toyota's horsepower but hey if they are within the legal limits then I suggest Chevy, Dodge and Ford get busy and do their homework. In my opinion, Toyota does not have an unfair advantage, JGR just figured something out the other teams haven't. Don't penalize Toyota for being good at what they do.

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  13. 13
    emily bagwell said:
    Jul 21, 2008 at 8:27 PM

    Scott, I expect NASCAR is dragging its feet because they wouldn't want to admit a mistake. Gladys, Toyota may not have an unfair advantage and therefore should not be penalized, but I figure Chevy and others are at a disadvantage because NASCAR wants the Toyotas to do well---just my opinion---let's hope all is fair---sure would be impossible to undo what's been done already.

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  14. 14
    Ed B said:
    Jul 21, 2008 at 9:30 PM

    Let's see... Toyota is down on power last year so they invest some $ and spend a year developing more hp. What do you think Chevy and Ford should do? Logic would say invest some money in development. I think it's pretty cut and dry. Also, let's not forget that TRD supplies EVERY Toyota's engine. JGR can mess with it if they want, but TRD creates it. Makes sense that MWR and JGR would both have fast cars.

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  15. 15
    Anonymous said:
    Jul 22, 2008 at 4:51 AM

    I remember when Chevy dominated for much of the last 20 years Nascar didn't do anything to even things out. Chevy clearly had the aero and engine advantage under Nascar's "Rules". Now that the Japs have the advantage the Chevy fans are screaming bloody murder. Go Figure! The Japs are pouring huge amounts of money into research and development so what do you expect?

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  16. 16
    mike Wilfong said:
    Jul 23, 2008 at 10:03 AM

    can someone please tell me why chevy ro7 is is not used in the nationwide series???? please stop telling me how hard toyota teams have work ,they do have and advanatage it call nascar!!!!!!!,,they done everything but give them a reach around ,,after 50 yr of racing pushrod v8 by chevy ,ford,dodge they get to build a race only version ,fixing all problems relayed to stock production engines ,but you say chevy also done that w/r07 yes thats right ,but they cant use itttt!

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  17. 17
    patsi Wilbanks said:
    Jul 23, 2008 at 6:52 PM

    Michael Waltrip plainly said in the first part of this season that he has 50 more horsepower and he stated that is why he is finishing races. It is not simply an issue of who has the most money to put into the face of NASCAR. It is plain and simple FAIRNESS AND RULES!! This is Nascar...N meaning National...NOT INTER national for goodness sakes....whether you call it " southern" or "redneck" , or what ever you choose to use as your whinny "cop out" for a better choice of words...this sport was born in America...not Japan. Money seems to buy such evil and change is not always good. By the way, I thought Joey and Kyle were already joined together!!!

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  18. 18
    emily bagwell said:
    Jul 23, 2008 at 8:28 PM

    Well, NASCAR is taking a step in Nationwide about the Toyotas---will not do anything in Sprint, I'm sure, because of the $*!# that has already happened this year. Everyone knows NASCAR promoted the Japs, so shut up about the R&D--they were just feeling their way into Cup last year with a bunch of losers in MWR and think they could come out this year smoking and people like some of you would jump up and accept them with open arms-what a bunch of crock! It's your mentality that has our economy on the brink of disaster. Ever heard of as American as apple pie amd chevrolet? Well, now you have!

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  19. 19
    Worm Dirt said:
    Jul 23, 2008 at 11:43 PM

    Emily, Have you ever walked around all day and you kind of noticed that people were looking at you a little strangely? They were polite about it probably.... maybe just avoiding eye-contact.... but something was definitely making them uncomfortable? Then later you happened to look in the mirror to realize that you had the biggest rankest nastiest something hanging out of your nose!!! Whoa!!!! Yikes!! ANd then the light bulb came on and it all made sense why people were acting strange! Please don't get mad cause I'm just trying to help, but when you discuss the issues you commented on above with people, do they ever look at you like there is something unpleasant hanging out of one your nostrils?

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  20. 20
    anonymous said:
    Jul 24, 2008 at 4:32 AM

    So that's why you have the name of dirty worm. ought to wash your face more often.

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  21. 21
    Todd Clayton said:
    Jul 24, 2008 at 8:35 PM

    Thanks Mike for a real racer's take on the situation. All manufacurer's are requiered to submit their engines for nascar approval. Ford, & Chevy both were turned down on their new engines submitted 1 1/2 yrs ago, but amazingly a manufacturer who has never built a push rod engine before gets approved the first time it is submitted. When Chevy was dominating a couple yrs ago they made 1/4 inch changes weekly to the spoilers and front valance to try to "level the playing field" but with the cot all cars are identical. I would imagine nascar will take months to pour over all that dyno info to make sure the check from toyota clears the bank.

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  22. 22
    emily bagwell said:
    Jul 24, 2008 at 9:34 PM

    Mike and Todd, explain all this to Worm---he can't see past a nose---well, actually, he's a bit different from everyone else---if you know what I mean. Worm, no one ever looks at me strange---most intelligent people love me!!!

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  23. 23
    Daryl Rice said:
    Jul 25, 2008 at 11:33 AM

    Just for all of you who don't know. Nascar allowed Toyota to have unlimited access to all of the other engines from all the manufacturers. Toyota was then allowed to develop an engine using all the data from each manufacturer and we see the result great job on the part of the Toyota engineers ,let someone else do all the work and we refine it. Nascar should issue the engines and let them race like the COT body template was designed to do.

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  24. 24
    emily bagwell said:
    Jul 25, 2008 at 2:29 PM

    Thanks for the info,Daryl. This explains a lot. Nascar has overstepped their boundaries with this one. All Toyotas hard work my foot!!!! I knew Joe Gibbs had some kind of incentive for going with Toyotas

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