Toyota awaiting approval for Cup series engine
By Bob Pockrass
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Toyota has submitted its proposed Nextel Cup engine to NASCAR but is still awaiting a response, Lee White, Toyota Racing Development senior vice president, said Monday.
The Toyota teams at the "car of tomorrow" test at Michigan were using truck motors with Cup-approved carburetors.
"The engine that we're using here is essentially a hot-rodded truck engine," White said. "It's a truck engine brought up to Cup power specifications. It's not the engine that we will be racing in February in Daytona."
White said he presented the block and cylinder head to NASCAR two weeks ago.
"It's really a matter of them getting all of the right people in one place ... to look at the parts and talk about what the engineers are seeing and make sure they agree with the box that they've described," White said. "Once that's done, I would expect that we would have final approval. At this point, there's no indication that there is any issue."
Toyota is already manufacturing the pieces for the Cup engine.
"We're moving ahead," White said. "We have been running the engine since June [in tests]. We're moving on down the road with it. Certainly, we can't stop. They're not going to delay the Daytona 500 for us if there is some sort of a glitch.
"We have, in our opinion, have met every criteria that we have been asked to meet with the engine. We don't expect to have any difficulties."
