Hendrick cars to start at back of qualifying races due to engine problems
Quote selected text Published February 13th, 2008 in NASCAR News
All four Hendrick Motorsports cars will start in the back of the field in Thursday’s 150-mile qualifying races after engine changes were made because of what officials described as an epidemic of bad lifters.
The problem also was discovered in Joe Nemecheck’s car that uses HMS engines and with several Toyota teams, causing officials to question whether all the bad parts came from one vendor.
Toyota is bringing new engines from California for the No. 44 of Dale Jarrett and No. 84 Toyota of A.J. Allmendinger. Joe Gibbs Racing is bringing new engines from North Carolina for the No. 96 of J.J. Yeley.
Chad Knaus, the crew chief for pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson of HMS, said coating on the cam shift appears to be getting on the lifters and filtering throughout the engine.
“Definitely by Sunday we’ll have it all squared away,” Chad Knaus said.
Johnson, Nemecheck and Casey Mears were slated for the first three starting spots of the first qualifying race with Dale Earnhardt Jr. fifth before the engine changes.
- Hendrick sends engines back to shop
- Widespread engine problems hit Sprint Cup teams
- Albers loses qualifying times, will start last
- Hendrick against the Car of Tomorrow
- Newman blows engine in practice, will start Sunday’s race from the back
What about jeff gordon?
He’s in the second qualifying race. Junior, Jimmie & Casey are in the first.
Good thing they caught it now instead of later
all 4 Hendrick cars are starting in the back even jeff gordon…… i hope they get it all squared away before tomorrow are sunday grrrrrrr this makes me worry
I can believe Chad Knaus as much as pinnochio. I highly doubt it was all four cars. But to be on the safe side is good. But, then again, how many times have you heard Gordon say his car isn’t cr@p and having problems, then suddenly he’s at the front. I don’t trust JJ or Gordons guys. We all KNOW that poor Mears never gets the good stuff anyway. Now as for Jr… Who knows. But I would think that Hendrick would put some good stuff under Jr, since he has a super money maker he needs to exploit.
And here i thought this crap was over when Jr left DEI and went to a team that supposedly had their sh$t together. I pray this isnt how the season is gonna go!! Come on Junebug!!
i think it’s a vendor thing- like they said, in the shootout the yota’s had the same issue. So it’s not chevy’s issue alone. It’s a plate race- they might be better off starting tailback, i can bet the 3 of them will freight train the rest of the field. As for jeff, he better find some friends, and quick.
steve wrote:
Why he is locked into the race, and once the 500 starts he is just going to drop to the back and ride around for 3 or sou hours until the final 50 laps. The further back you start the 500 the better IMO.
Diversion—-A maneuver that draws the atention of an opponent away from the planed point of action—–Cheat to eat
I agree withe “cheater”. Its all too ironic. And funny enough, CHAD KNAUS SAYS there is a problem, blah n blah. Except, what does it REALLY matter to him or JJ? I mean they are sitting on the pole, this changes NOTHING for that part of the team. Though, per usual, we WILL see Gordon do the fantastic revival of the “my car sucks syndrome”… till those last few laps and wham! he’s up front and has “the car to beat”. HAHA Man, that kills me.
Oh, and how is it that Gordo gets in a dual without any of his teamamtes but the other three are in one together? I thought it went by odds/evens in last Sun qaulifying. I don’t think I am mistaken that JJ was 1st, Jr 15th, Gordon 10th, Mears 6th. So HOW is it that Mears and Gordon aren’t in the same race and Jr and JJ in the other if it goes by odd/even? I am perplexed. That’s what those oh so smart commentators kept saying… sooo is this just another “let’s give Gordon everything we can to help him be the top billing guy’? haha If so then I really think they got caught here.
LMAO…
All 4 of the Hendrick’s drivers will be guinnea pigs this season because Hendricks’ doesn’t have nearly as many hours using the new Chevy R07 engines as DEI.
Hendrick was procrastinating the implementation of the new R07 last year and used it very little… they still have a huge learning curve to go through that isn’t being admitted to or talked about… silence is telling… ignorance is bliss…
DEI is already ahead of them on this subject…
Poor little “Junebug”… lil’ guinnea pig…
How fitting…
LMAO…
i agree with cheater, they got caught last and they’re getting caught this year, it’s just so they won’t lose sunday or get the boot, which they desire!!!
WOW! If ignorance is bliss… can YOU explain that please. hahaha This post really doesn’t make sense. I will admit I am no fan of the whole hendrick outfit, this post is plain stupid. Do you really believe that Hendrick doesn’t do homework? The guy has ample amounts of time, money, and energy behind each car and the testing of EACH in the off season and during the season. Why would Jr be a guinea pig (hence the correct spelling or guinea). And as far as what I see, all those hours that DEI put into testing those engines, they obviously NEEDED since all they had last year was JUNK! And where did that come from, Oh ya, Teresa, Ms “Business development”. Bahaha yeah, OK.
Mike
Feb 13th, 2008 at 7:36 pm Quote
LMAO…
All 4 of the Hendrick’s drivers will be guinnea pigs this season because Hendricks’ doesn’t have nearly as many hours using the new Chevy R07 engines as DEI.
Hendrick was procrastinating the implementation of the new R07 last year and used it very little… they still have a huge learning curve to go through that isn’t being admitted to or talked about… silence is telling… ignorance is bliss…
DEI is already ahead of them on this subject…
Poor little “Junebug”… lil’ guinnea pig…
How fitting…
LMAO…
WOW! If ignorance is bliss… can YOU explain that please. hahaha This post really doesn’t make sense. I will admit I am no fan of the whole Hendrick outfit, but this post is plain stupid. Do you really believe that Hendrick doesn’t do homework? The guy has ample amounts of time, money, and energy behind each car and the testing of EACH in the off season and during the season. Why would Jr be a guinea pig (hence the correct spelling for guinea). And, as far as what I see, all those hours that DEI put into testing those engines, they obviously NEEDED since all they had last year was JUNK! And where did that come from, Oh ya, Teresa, Ms “Business development”. Bahaha yeah, OK.
Mike
Feb 13th, 2008 at 7:36 pm Quote
LMAO…
All 4 of the Hendrick’s drivers will be guinnea pigs this season because Hendricks’ doesn’t have nearly as many hours using the new Chevy R07 engines as DEI.
Hendrick was procrastinating the implementation of the new R07 last year and used it very little… they still have a huge learning curve to go through that isn’t being admitted to or talked about… silence is telling… ignorance is bliss…
DEI is already ahead of them on this subject…
Poor little “Junebug”… lil’ guinnea pig…
its about time somthin went wrong with hendrick!!! they are all in the back so im sure nascar will sneak them a less restrictive restrictor plate to make sure they still win though thats what sucks
If anything this is a good test for Hendrick. It’s a bad thing to happen to any driver (to get bumped to the back of the pack.) But the fact that they caught the problem before the race, actually says a lot. It’s a gamble any way you look at it. But I’d rather see them run the appropriate tests and change out engines, then to have them blowing engines with only 5 laps to go. ….. What I can’t wait to see is, how many of them actually make it through the pack and back up front, without having an incident.
add stewart to the motor change list i am told due to cam shaft/lifter issues.
I love how instantly all of the conspiracy theory Hendrick haters pull all of these “facts” out of their @sses.
Turns out it isn’t a Hendrick thing… according to Jayski there are many more teams, coming from the Toyota Camp (Tony Stewart, OH NO! Joe Gibbs is cheating TOO??) that are changing engines too.
You guys make me sick. You’re just jealous because your driver isn’t good enough for a Rick Hendrick. Get over it.
Come on you guys we are talking about two differant engine suppliers here not just Hendrick obviously both got their lifters and cams from the same source.
cheater wrote:
That is a very expensive deversion! 7 engines totoal if you count the ones that hendrick sells, labor, stress, I don’t think so!
!
The Toyota problems actually happened about an hour or two before the Hendrick problems, and it is the same part.
Now I know Chevy and Toyota both sell a lot of each others cars (Corollas are sold as Chevy Prism’s, Cavaliers as sold as Toyota Cavaliers in Japan, and many other models too) I do not think that Chevy and Toyota would cheat together, especially when a “Cheat” like this can hurt you more then help you.
Mike wrote:
You must be pretty happy!
Another ploy by that evil genius Cheater Chad? Maybe not. I believe Joe and Kenny probably would’ve changed theirs too. But then again, this is Joe’s best shot at making the race and they’re gonna ride it out. The Toyota situation is interesting too. I guess we’ll find out how everything held up after the twin qualifiers.
Joe and Kenny just swapped motors also.
That’s a shame. Poor Joe.
Oops my bad , I was wrong. Or at least the article I saw it in was wrong.
Kenny and Joe both made the race!
I think if the pace car had a Hendrick motor , it would be in the race. HMS is making great power , theres no arguing that fact.
Speaking of the pace car, I was listening to the Officials channel yesterday on trackpass, and for some reason they do not call it the pace car, but the caution car. I have only ever heard it be called the Pace car, or the Safety car, but never the caution car. I always thought the caution car was the car that brought out the caution.
Haha FISHA. same here. Its always been a “pace car”. Its probably some guy trying to institute a “trendier” word. Kind like Paris Hilton did with “that’s hot”. I won’t be calling the pace car a caution car ever. So, I don’t think that will catch on. LOL Geesh, even local short tracks say Pace car. LOL