Gibbs used its own engines in All Star race, not Toyota’s
Quote selected text Published May 19th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Joe Gibbs Racing used its own engines in the all-star race as opposed to the engines it receives from Toyota Racing Development. The team plans to go back to TRD motors for the Coca-Cola 600.
Since the all-star race is a non-points race, it provides teams a chance to test equipment without fear that a failure will hurt them in the points.
- Gibbs leaning towards Toyota?
- NASCAR to clip Toyota’s wings?
- Toyota’s White says he was told cheating on horsepower ‘prevalent’ in garage
- Toyota has horsepower advantage at Daytona-UPDATE
- Toyota’s Jim Aust speaks on signing Gibbs
What the heck… Might as well take a shot and see what happens, right? I think everyone sort of assumed they were running some kind of trick setup with all the problems JGR has this weekend. Interesting to note that they used their own motors instead of TRD’s. Wonder what the thinking was behind that? They trying to do their own thing or was that just a R&D kind of thing for the benefit of everyone?
I was under the impression that when JGR went to Toyota Mark Conquist (I think thats his name) and the rest of the JGR engine shop pretty much took over TRD’s NC operations that supplied the Cup and Nationwide teams with engines.
I bet they will not do that again!
I go along with Fisha on this. I was under the impression that Cronquist was the big man on campus and had a free reign with the Toyota engine program. I thought he brought something to the table. It can’t be a coincidence that ever since JGR came aboard Toyota started winning Cup and Nationwide races. There’s gotta be something to it. And if you have to test and a practice session won’t cut it, do it at a non points event.
gigolo george wrote:
Did it ever occur to you that the reason Gibbs Toyotas are so competitive is that they know how to set up a car? The other Toyota cars have similar horsepower, but Gibbs Toyotas just fly through the turns a lot quicker.
The cars are all set up by computers now-a-days. l0l
I was thinking about what this JGR engine was and I came to this conclusion, Mark and the JGR engine shop DID take the Toyota program and give it an overhaul over the off-season, and that accounts for the increase in competition by the other Toyota teams, and I think the engine that the JGR cars were running this weekend might have had some lightweight prototype stuff in it that is not officially part of the TRD engine package yet.
NASCAR Fan wrote:
I hope your not that nieve but your off topic this article is about JGR’s engines not setups.
You are correct George. We were talking about an engine program.
George Thompson wrote:
No, I’m not that nieve about the topic. And sorry about the off-topic response, but the sentence about coincidence regarding JGR and the sudden performance increase brought this on. Even though JGR has their own engine shop, they follow specific guidelines and follow TRD’s specifications. JGR and TRD are technical partners, with a TRD employee always in the JGR shop.
NASCARfan, if Toyota was such a powerful engine, why did all the Toyotas look so bad before Gibbs involvement? HMS COT cars were superior last year, but haven’t been as successful this year. Bad chassis? Motors? Did Knaus and the gang get stupid over the winter? I’m a moron everyone. Please help me understand. I’m nye eve.
The fact that Gibbs knows how to be fast with the COT wasn’t lost when they went to Toyota
The other Toyota teams are still fairly terrible, which shows that Gibbs just have experience over the others.
And the reason Hendrick seems to have fallen behind is their
reluctance to mess with the yaw (How twisted the car is going down the straights) as much as JGR and Roush have..
As far as the engine…
Toyota has a strong engine package, comparable to the RO6 for Chevy which used to be the standard.
This package they ran at the All-star race was a custom in-house piece tailored specifically for the All-star race..
I’m not sure where, but Denny Hamlin was quoted saying that the package was intended to
last just over 100 laps…I doubt we’ll ever see any of those components in the regular engine…
but man those JGR Toyotas did fly down the straights during the race…
wrote:
sorry, but it takes more than horsepower to be competitive in any sport, although it helps. There’s been a saying in almost all forms of motorsports that a well engineered team with a talented driver is worth 20 to 30 horsepower. Toyota always made similar, if not a little more horsepower in the ‘07 season. MWR, RBR were all freshman teams with a thin notebook of information, compared to teams of championship caliber. If you notice in any race, look at a Roush, Hendricks, Gibbs car. They can pass most other cars on the turns, where chassis engineering come into play. If your car has to slow down because of lack of grip, then even having an additional 30 horsepower won’t help you. Remember, a winning car has a winning team, and not just a powerful engine.
sure didn’t seem to help them at all did it!!
Toyota is vastly improved since last year. You’d be lying to yourself if thought otherwise.Waltrip has been flirting with poles. All of his cars are in the top 35. Red Bull looks better. Davis is the only one that still runs like garbage. JGR has always had the right stuff.