Power source

The Chase gets under way this weekend, but NASCAR officials and the four manufacturers participating in NASCAR's three premier series already are thinking about 2007.

The impact of Toyota's expansion next season into Busch and Nextel Cup competition is being felt in the engine development departments of the three existing NASCAR manufacturers – General Motors, Ford and Dodge.

Because Toyota had to build a brand new engine that would allow it to compete in the Craftsman Truck Series, the manufacturer had the luxury of working with a clean sheet of paper. And despite working within NASCAR rules, Toyota engineers produced an engine that potentially gives the manufacturer a competitive edge.

Without getting lost in pages of technical jargon, the bottom line is that Toyota designed an engine that was lighter, stronger and potentially able to produce more power than anything that the other three either are currently using or were planning to build.

Using their very successful Toyota Tundras program as laboratories on wheels, Toyota engineers could examine hours of data on the performance of their truck engine and then incorporate it into their upcoming Nextel Cup engine.

With Toyota preparing to submit a new engine for Cup competition, NASCAR officials – in what may have been an attempt to appease the other three manufacturers – allowed Chevy, Dodge and Ford the opportunity to submit new engine block designs as well.

Each of the three took a different course by choosing to design a new engine, making wholesale changes to a current engine or modifying individual parts.

GM saw this as a long-awaited opportunity to design a new engine.

Its current engine, although extensively modified over the past decade, essentially still was based on an engine design from the 1950s. But instead of designing the new engine in-house, GM assigned the task to two of its key teams – Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, which have experienced engine-building departments.

Each organization had its own idea of how it would like the next generation of GM engine to look, and after months of development, both submitted engines to GM.

Both designs were well-conceived and featured several innovative features, leaving GM execs in a quandary. Which design to use?

"We showed both designs to our teams, and we let them decide which one to use," said Alba Colon, GM Racing's program manager for Nextel Cup.

The result was a compromise that incorporated all the features into a single new engine, which has been submitted to NASCAR officials and is awaiting approval.

"We've done our homework and feel confident that our engine design will be approved by NASCAR," said Jim Covey, GM Racing's engine development manager.

However, the NASCAR engine approval process at best can be described as a moving target, as series officials attempt to keep a level playing field while at the same time try to appease each manufacturer.

Should a single manufacturer design a feature in its engine that NASCAR engineers decide will give it an advantage over the others, the engine will be rejected, even after it has been given preliminary approval.

Speaking of rejection …

Dodge originally had designed its current engine to allow for future modifications, but those modifications never were approved, leaving the manufacturer with an engine that was much heavier than the competition.

Therefore, Dodge officials jumped at the chance to design a new engine block, but their teams balked at the potential cost of having to build all new engines.

Instead, Dodge, operating with what it claims was NASCAR's knowledge, designed changes to its engine that would allow teams gradually to change their existing inventory of engines to the new engine block by replacing individual key components – the engine block, the cylinder heads or the manifold – one at a time. This process would allow teams slowly to absorb the costs of the new parts.

The plan seemed ideal until Dodge officials submitted their final designs – including the parts phase-in plan – to NASCAR.

At that point, NASCAR officials told Dodge that they would not approve its plan to introduce parts on a progressive basis and that Dodge either would have to completely change everything in the engine to an all-new design or not change its engine at all.

The decision caught Dodge officials completely off guard, as they had were under the impression that theirs was a sound idea with built-in cost-cutting measures. Instead, they were left with no choice but to withdraw their new engine design.

"In defense of [NASCAR], maybe they had to see everything first and then make their decision," said Michael Accavitti, who oversees Dodge's NASCAR program.

Accavitti graciously describes the process of approval as being a difficult balancing act.

"It's like a parent with four children who needs to make sure that each doesn't get more ice cream than the other," he said.

To meet NASCAR's approval, Dodge engineers would have had to make wholesale changes that in the end would have not been cost-effective. Instead, Dodge will bring its current engine to the track next year.

However, Accavitti does see a silver lining in the outcome.

"We can watch next season unfold and see what the other guys come out with and use that information in our submission next year," he said.

Ford confusion

According to Ford team owner Jack Roush, NASCAR's game plan for Ford seemed to change on an almost monthly basis.

Roush said that in February of this year, NASCAR officials told Roush/Yates Engines that they would be receptive to a submission of a new engine block design later in the year.

In late April, as development of an all-new engine block was under way, Roush/Yates Engines was told the same thing regarding a new engine block.

By August, NASCAR officials shared with Roush/Yates that they were getting a lot of pressure from the other manufacturers to allow submission of both a new cylinder head as well as an engine block.

Roush and Co. were then asked if they would like to submit a new cylinder head.

"We told them no," Roush said.

At that point, Roush/Yates had finished developing a new engine block to work with the old cylinder heads, so they decided to withdraw the submission and wait until the dust cleared.

"Doug [Yates] felt it was best to withdraw and come back in 12 months with both a new engine block and cylinder head," Roush said.

That leaves Toyota and GM most likely starting the 2007 season with new engines while both Dodge and Ford continue with their current inventory. This either could give Toyota and GM a distinct advantage next season or actually favor the other manufacturers as the new engines go through growing pains.

New front-end design

New engine issues haven't been the only topic of discussion between NASCAR and its manufacturer partners.

NASCAR's templates for its next generation stock car – the Car of Tomorrow – allow each manufacturer to have a distinctive front end on its respective COT design.

Unlike the current car which features a common template that mandates each manufacturer share a common front-end design, the new COT noses specifically are designed to give each manufacturer its own identity.

In the past, even slight aerodynamic and power differences between manufacturers had been a source of headaches for NASCAR officials. It was a common occurrence that one manufacturer would petition NASCAR officials for "relief" when it believed another may have an aerodynamic advantage.

That relief often came in the form of a penalty against the manufacturer seen as having an advantage.

NASCAR officials were not willing to revisit the past and had a plan in place to avoid it.

Several weeks ago, all four manufacturers had representatives on hand as each new nose design was wind-tunnel tested.

"The [aerodynamic] numbers on each were very close," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's director of competition. "We're confident that there will not be any problems with any of them."

When contacted on this issue, each manufacturer's representative agreed with Pemberton, adding that heading into the new season with the new car, NASCAR had done a good job in making sure the new nose designs were as close to one another as possible.