trauma1
10-25-06, 10:30 AM
yoda spending 30 mil thus far and honda getting ready to invade, sit back and watch the fireworks , its from 2005 but what's really going on
Monday, October 3, 2005
NASCAR Notebook
Officials courting Honda to join Cup
COMPILED BY MIKE MULHERN
Today's Top Stories
•• Honda, long-rumored to be interested in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing, is now trying to hire NASCAR engine builders for its Honda Racing Development operation, according to engine men familiar with the situation.
It is unclear just what game plan that Honda might be considering. But NASCAR has provided Honda with Truck-racing templates, and Honda, since introducing its first big truck this season, the Ridgeline, has been widely expected to enter NASCAR Truck racing eventually.
"Honda will outsource to begin with, but they'll quickly bring it back in-house," one knowledgeable engine builder said.
Honda is a major power on the Formula One tour, and it has been dominating Indy-car racing, essentially running General Motors right out of open-wheel racing and pushing Toyota down that same path.
That Honda news comes as NASCAR officials wrestle with Toyota executives over changes in engine design that NASCAR would like Toyota to make in Toyota's NASCAR V-8, which is currently run on the Truck tour (but of very similar design to a Nextel Cup-legal motor).
"The Toyota people have gotten very 'bowed up' over that," according to one top NASCAR team manager familiar with the talks.
The Toyota Truck engine has been a bone of contention among rivals this season, particularly after Toyota's impressive summer winning streak.
Ford's Jack Roush says that the Toyota engine is superior to the other three makes. Chevrolet's Richie Gilmore, who runs Dale Earnhardt Inc., says that one key aspect of the Toyota engine is its light weight, "160 pounds less than the others." That's because of both design and metallurgy.
Rather than spend large sums to match the Toyota NASCAR designs, Ford, Dodge and GM are pushing NASCAR to force Toyota to change its engine instead, which Toyota is naturally resisting, apparently very vigorously.
That controversy over the Toyota engine may have been a major reason for Toyota's decision to abandon plans to field teams on the Busch tour in 2006.
That Ford, Dodge and GM are having big financial problems at the corporate level is widely known. Toyota, on the other hand, is a $140 billion capitalization company with $160 billion a year in sales and with more than $5 billion a year in free cash flow, and it sold 7.4 million cars last year, moving past Ford to become the world's number-two car maker.
Two years ago General Motors proposed a new NASCAR engine that would meet the Toyota challenge, but NASCAR officials, after initially approving the design, abruptly killed it, without explanation.
Over the winter, NASCAR officials began a series of meetings with top stock-car racing engine men to lay out a blueprint for a brand-new, NASCAR-type V-8, with goals including small cubic-inch displacement and 100 less horsepower.
That project was an attempt to get Toyota "back in the box," by bringing engines under tighter specs.
However NASCAR abruptly killed that program in June, again without explanation.
Then last month, as Toyota went on its winning streak, NASCAR found itself under pressure again to rein in Toyota.
Monday, October 3, 2005
NASCAR Notebook
Officials courting Honda to join Cup
COMPILED BY MIKE MULHERN
Today's Top Stories
•• Honda, long-rumored to be interested in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing, is now trying to hire NASCAR engine builders for its Honda Racing Development operation, according to engine men familiar with the situation.
It is unclear just what game plan that Honda might be considering. But NASCAR has provided Honda with Truck-racing templates, and Honda, since introducing its first big truck this season, the Ridgeline, has been widely expected to enter NASCAR Truck racing eventually.
"Honda will outsource to begin with, but they'll quickly bring it back in-house," one knowledgeable engine builder said.
Honda is a major power on the Formula One tour, and it has been dominating Indy-car racing, essentially running General Motors right out of open-wheel racing and pushing Toyota down that same path.
That Honda news comes as NASCAR officials wrestle with Toyota executives over changes in engine design that NASCAR would like Toyota to make in Toyota's NASCAR V-8, which is currently run on the Truck tour (but of very similar design to a Nextel Cup-legal motor).
"The Toyota people have gotten very 'bowed up' over that," according to one top NASCAR team manager familiar with the talks.
The Toyota Truck engine has been a bone of contention among rivals this season, particularly after Toyota's impressive summer winning streak.
Ford's Jack Roush says that the Toyota engine is superior to the other three makes. Chevrolet's Richie Gilmore, who runs Dale Earnhardt Inc., says that one key aspect of the Toyota engine is its light weight, "160 pounds less than the others." That's because of both design and metallurgy.
Rather than spend large sums to match the Toyota NASCAR designs, Ford, Dodge and GM are pushing NASCAR to force Toyota to change its engine instead, which Toyota is naturally resisting, apparently very vigorously.
That controversy over the Toyota engine may have been a major reason for Toyota's decision to abandon plans to field teams on the Busch tour in 2006.
That Ford, Dodge and GM are having big financial problems at the corporate level is widely known. Toyota, on the other hand, is a $140 billion capitalization company with $160 billion a year in sales and with more than $5 billion a year in free cash flow, and it sold 7.4 million cars last year, moving past Ford to become the world's number-two car maker.
Two years ago General Motors proposed a new NASCAR engine that would meet the Toyota challenge, but NASCAR officials, after initially approving the design, abruptly killed it, without explanation.
Over the winter, NASCAR officials began a series of meetings with top stock-car racing engine men to lay out a blueprint for a brand-new, NASCAR-type V-8, with goals including small cubic-inch displacement and 100 less horsepower.
That project was an attempt to get Toyota "back in the box," by bringing engines under tighter specs.
However NASCAR abruptly killed that program in June, again without explanation.
Then last month, as Toyota went on its winning streak, NASCAR found itself under pressure again to rein in Toyota.