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CUP: New Ford Engine In Again
Written by: Tom Jensen   
11/19/2009
Homestead, FL
 
Ford engineers were pleased with the new FR9 engine's performance at Talladega. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

Ford’s next-generation FR9 NASCAR Sprint Cup engine will get its second competitive test Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the season-ending Ford 400.

The engine, Ford’s first clean-sheet, purpose-built Sprint Cup motor, was first raced three weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway, where David Ragan and Matt Kenseth used it in finishing 17th and 24th, respectively. This week at Homestead, only Ragan’s car will be FR9-equipped.

According to Ford engineers, the advantages of the FR9 are more in the handling department than in sheer horsepower: The new powerplant has a lower center of gravity and improved cooling. The latter is important because it will allow Ford teams to run more tape on the noses of their Fusions, increasing front downforce.

Sunday’s race will be the first time the FR9 will be used in a non-restrictor-plate configuration. If all continues to go as well, Ford officials said the plan is to phase the new engine in by the middle of the 2010 season.

And despite extensive dyno testing, it’s important to start using the FR9 in actual competition conditions, said Doug Hervey, North American Operations Manager, Ford Racing Technology.

“Well, it gives us a good look at how the engine will perform on the track. You know, the engine has been tested on a dyno with race-durability runs – so, it has simulated racing, but it hasn’t been out in the environment,” said Hervey. “This is going to great. This is going to be a good test for us to see how the engine performs on track, because during the dyno-simulations runs we can’t simulate the ‘dirty air,’ if you will, and all the environmental conditions that the engine will see. So, this will give us a good barometer for where we are at with the engine.”

Hervey said the Talladega race produced no real surprises
in terms of how the engine performed.

“We learned that our pre-race durability testing and reliability testing was spot-on,” said Hervey. “When we tore down the motor we looked at certain areas of the motor, and they looked great from an inspection standpoint. So, we were very pleased with the tear-down results of the motor, and we are looking forward to doing power development with the motor as we go forward.”

And that was what the Ford engineers wanted.

“It was actually exactly what we had hoped we would see, so there were no surprises,” said Hervey. “Actually, we were pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t a small area that needed some tweaking or some modification, so if there was a surprise, that would be a good surprise, because we didn’t see any of that. From the restrictor-plate version, we were very happy with the motor.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED, and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com! Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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