NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Friday Kansas Notebook
Engines are becoming a hot topic in NASCAR...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted June 03, 2011   Kansas City, KS
Carl Edwards feels Ford engines are not a huge advantage in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series events. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
BOYS UNDER THE HOOD — With the Roush Fenway Racing Fords showing greatly increased pace this year, rival manufacturers are starting to make noise about horsepower. Ford’s purpose-built FR9 NASCAR Sprint Cup engine was designed with a lower center of gravity and greatly improved cooling, the latter of which allows Ford teams to run more tape on the nose of their cars. The more tape added, the more front downforce, although too much tape can block the radiator and cause overheating.

Sources at Dodge confirmed to SPEED.com that the automaker is looking at revisions to its existing — and still relatively new — P6 engine. NASCAR would need to approve any engine mods, and a Dodge official said they automaker “could have something toward end of season.” As for now, the source said, “All talk now is premature.”

Still, some believe the Fords are significantly ahead.

“I think Ford definitely has an advantage right now over the whole field,” said two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart. “Anybody that doesn’t have one, they’ve been working on this motor for a long time and we’re still on about a six-year old model. I’m really proud of Hendrick’s engine department — they’ve been fighting a lot and have been really working hard to keep us where we’re at. I think you’re kind of bringing a knife to a gun fight right now. I can’t wait for one of these NASCAR deals after the race where they chassis dyno some cars and see where they’re at because I think that will tell the tale.”

Sprint Cup points leader Carl Edwards, not surprisingly, took issue with Stewart’s take on engines.

“We are not head and shoulders above other people, we have caught up,” said Edwards. “I feel like before we were behind and worked on our cars quite a bit and now that we have caught up it looks really good but we can’t lay off of our engine program. We have to keep moving forward. There are engines I raced against last weekend, and we were a little conservative in our package, that was making a lot more power off the corners.

“I am just going to have to disagree with Tony and say that we don’t have a huge advantage. That is what he is supposed to be doing. He is supposed to be kicking and screaming and looking for an advantage of his own.”

POWER FAILURE — Although he offered few details, five-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said his Hendrick Motorsports team quickly identified the cause of his rare engine failure in last week’s Coca-Cola 600.

“The way the engine failed we were able to understand what happened pretty quick,” said Johnson, who is third in points. “Before I got home they knew what had started the problem and what had failed. So we’re on top of it and it’s clearly not something that happens often and we’ve got a good idea of what happened and those guys will fix it. It was just an unfortunate thing and oh-so-close to finishing the race in a good position. We’ll go from there.”

WHAT’S THE POINT? — NASCAR’s new points system awards spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the top 10 in points after the 26-race regular season. Also making the Chase will be the two drivers in positions 11-20 who have the most race victories.

So far, no one in slots 11-20 has more than one victory. But at the top of the charts, second-place points man Kevin Harvick has three victories already, which virtually guarantees him a spot in the Chase. It also allows his Richard Childress Racing team the luxury of experimenting at races. And taking risks as well.

Last Sunday, Kevin Harvick gambled on fuel mileage at the end of the Coca-Cola 600 and wound up winning the race when Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas on the last lap.

“Obviously you want to keep running well, but I think that when we got to the two wins, it was the topic of conversation in the competition meetings just for the fact, you look at last week, seventh or eighth in the points, you aren’t making those calls at the end of the race,” Harvick said. “I mean, you can’t afford a 25th place finish running out of gas. In the position we are in, you are able to do those things. You don’t think twice about it and that is what you should be doing is trying to gain more wins so you gain more bonus points at the of the 26th race. ...When it comes time to make strategy calls, the only calls you even consider are the ones that could let you win. I think that was very evident last week.”
Clint Bowyer is hoping for great racing in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series STP 400 at Kansas Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

SLIPPIN‘ AND SLIDIN’ — Kansas Speedway, which hosted its first NASCAR Sprint Cup race in 2001, is now starting to age nicely, which has the drivers excited about the prospects of a good race in Sunday’s STP 400.

“When we first came here it was really single-file, ride around the bottom,” said Kansas native Clint Bowyer, who will be one of the favorites on Sunday. “As these tracks age, these 1.5-mile tracks, I feel like they get a lot better. The racing gets better. The groove widens out. It really becomes a multi-groove race trace and that’s what excites me about this place. It’s slick man, I’m telling you; every time I come back here, the track gets slicker and slicker where they’ve tarred and patched the cracks are really slick. You’ve got to be conscious of those and not get on those; cross them or try to drive on them you run your right sides on them you could bust your butt pretty easy.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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