2016 NASCAR thread

I would say Hendrick and Gibbs have the better engineers, not engines.

 

Do the engineers oversee the building of engines? I know SHR does better than Hendrick on race day...

 

Each team has engineers who build these engines so yea. That's why you see common problems between teammates when there's a failure on race day. And SHR and Hendrick use the same engineers. Just like in 2017 SHR and rousch-Yates will

 

Gibbs doesn't make their motors anymore - They switched to TRD motors when they couldn't keep their motors from letting all the smoke out. That's also some of the Toyota's problem - TRD makes the better performing Cup powerplants, but Triad makes motors for for many of the smaller teams and in other series. TRD can't meet demand for all of the Toyota teams to provide motors to everyone.

 

Rousch engineers aren't that good... Look at their success...

 

Engineers are good if there is reliability and HP in the motors, teams are good if they use the chassis, suspension, weight distribution, aero, driver specifics, etc to win races.

 

and then drivers are good if their name is Busch

 

Hendrick makes their own engines & chassis. 5, 24, 48, 88
Stewart Hass gets (got) their stuff rolled over from hendrick. 4, 10, 14, 41
TRD makes and doles out all the Toyota engines. 11, 18, 19, 20, 78, 83
Roush Yates made most of the Ford engines. 6, 16, 17, 34, 38
The Childress & Ganassi guys share an engine shop for 3, 27, 31, 1*, 42*, 95, 33, 47 and 13 teams.
I think Penske still has their in-house engine shop for the 2, 22, 21, 43, and 44.
There are some independent engine builders for the smaller teams. Ernie Elliott is one builder.

Edit: forgot about Triad. Thanks @Bsheriff11
Edit 2: I spoke wrong, Ganassi switched to Childress power in 13. Thanks @adrenalnjunky

Not sure about 15, 46, 98, 7, 32

 

so Penske doesn't use roush engines???

 

They do use them

 

is it me, or do I read they don't here, but they do elsewhere...

 

The teams he listed all use Yates engines

 

The spread of success is huge...

 

who remembers last season when penskee kept blowing motors?!?! One race keslowski and logano both blew a motor...

 

Lol Ford needs a new builder...

 

pens needs a new builder

 

penskee

 

Love to see petty get a new one. I like Almirola

 

According to Racing Reference; the difinitive source of NASCAR stats,
Brad Keselowski lost only ONE engine in 2015: http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/keselbr01/2015/W
Keselowski lost ZERO engines in 2014: http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/keselbr01/2014/W
Kes lost ONE engine in 2013: http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/keselbr01/2013/W

Joey Logano lost ZERO engines in 2015: http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/loganjo01/2015/W
Logano lost ONE engine in 2014: http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/loganjo01/2014/W
Joey lost TWO engines in 2013: http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/loganjo01/2013/W

So that makes FIVE combined blown engines over the course of SIX combined seasons and 216 combined races. There was never a Sprint Cup race in 2015 where both Penske cars blew a motor. I'm not a Penske or Ford apologist, nor the biggest Penske fan. My kid likes the 2 & 22. I think the cars look sharp. I'm a #21 fan myself, so that makes me a Penske fan by association. I like empirical data and facts that support statements. I'm not saying what you claim never happened. I think you might be mis-remember-ing something. They might've gone to back-up engines after a practice at some point. I don't follow the sport close enough to keep up with those particulars anymore. I did try a few different google searches for evidence, but I didn't find anything. Penske engines, in reality are very consistent.

Anecdotal at best. Now if there's a repeat occurrence, that's something to consider. Motors blow. Remember when Gibbs cars were grenading every other week a couple years back? It happens. As mentioned above, that's why they switched to TRD. Here's why blown motors happen: NASCAR banned private testing several years ago. The teams can no longer turn the cars through repeated high RPM runs on track to get real numbers for the engineers. Every team has faced a spate of blown motors at some point in time.
The team with the best track record for consistent engines is Richard Childress Racing. When Dale Earnhardt was driving, their engine builder was Eddie Lanier. His philosophy was not to always build the fastest engine, but the one that could take the most punishment for 501 miles. This was of course, back when they ran bias ply tires, throttled the cars much more, and didn't have pit road speed limits. This philosophy carried over to the Earnhardt-Childress engine company. In 11 seasons with RCR, Kevin Harvick only had six poles. In his first year with Stewart-Hass (Hendrick power), he amassed 8 poles in one season. Dale Earnhardt had 17 poles across 17 YEARS with RCR. He didn't win a single pole between 1997 and his death in 2001.


Also, I hope I'm not coming across as a dick or anything. I'm just really into NASCAR stats and data. I am a diagnosed Autistic Spectrum Disorder (formerly known as Asperger's Syndrome) guy, and we tend to really get into numbers and data, and kind of come across as jerky sometimes.

Sweet sweet data. Numbers don't lie.

 

so what is your opinion on RCR motors currently? I think they could be better...