Engine Shop

[blah39]

Absolute bullsh-t, absolute, one week after the engine shop finds out that they are being replaced by the yates engine shop. Kasey has a engine failure. Someone is pissed they are losing their job.. Come on!! No one else doesnt think its a coincidence he hasnt had an engine failure since last year with the old engine, now the first race after the talk of the merger, he blows one. 3 years it took to finally get into the damn chase, and the first race hes done in 60 laps. Im so pissed..

[I_Am_4_Kahne]

I second that completely! I could spit nails.

[Kasey Fan]

I can not believe this is happening!!!!!!!!!! now my week is ruined!

[wsucougarchick05]

Um, these engines were built well before this last week happened. So it's not sabotage.

If this was Homestead, then yes, I'd say sabotage...but it's not and there is no way to correlate the engine woes with the drama of the last week and a half.

[blah39]

doesnt matter the engines may have been built before this but all the accessories and setting it up were done this week. The base was already there., yes.

[blah39]

all it takes is one misadjustment somewhere down the line, to make an engine not last the entire race, one lil misadjustment.

[Granny D]

I'm with you blah39 and I think it needs some looking into by Nascar.

[CDJ]

From what I understand the crank broke! Marty Smith reported this after he spoke with Kahne. I am furious that this happened and it could have been prevented by careful checking. There was also an article this week that stated they went in search of Robbie Loomis after Kahne had been questioned on the Leadership of RPM and they found him with the #19 crew. When questioned he replied-"My main deal is the chase". The reporter then ask- "Then why are you with the #19?" He replied-"Kasey is running good". Rumor also has the #44 AJ going to the Ford engine by Dover, when Loomis was questioned, he did not answer. Kasey should have replied- "NO COMMENT" to all media questions on the dealings with RPM & Ford. Either some one in the engine dept. or the head honchos decided to teach to somebody a lesson. Kasey needs to packs his bags & the entire #9 team also and rRUN LIKE HELL! It's a sad day when your CHASE car blows an engine & your field cars are running in the top ten???? No disrespect to Sadler or AJ but something stinks at RPM!!!!!!

[wsucougarchick05]

From Keith Rodden's twitter:

kmrodden: Hey guys this is no payback from the engine shop or any other conspiracy theory. Our engine guys want nothing more than win a championship

So it WAS NOT sabotage. I think that one of the engineers (or is he the Car Chief? I can't remember...) is a pretty reliable source and would know.

[Marci]

Wow... Conspiracy theories. How fun! I choose to believe Keith, thanks. I would think he of all people would know what's going on.

[wsucougarchick05]

Marci wrote:

Wow... Conspiracy theories. How fun! I choose to believe Keith, thanks. I would think he of all people would know what's going on.

Same here. I'm gonna go with Keith on this one.

But of course, the conspiracy theorists here are probably the ones who also believe that just because ice cream sales and violent crime rates go up when it's hot, the two MUST be related, even though there might be extemporaneous factors (i.e. warmer weather...which is the common factor in the above example. Correlation and causality...look it up) that give you that fallacious cause-and-effect relationship.

[Raising Kahne]

quote from Kenny Francis: "It looks like something came up from the track and knocked all the belts off. There's a big chuck out of the [oil pump] pulley. It's really a shame, because we had a good car. We were moving up. We needed to make a couple small changes to make it better, but we were really happy with the car.

[blah39]

Just because i think its sabotage doesnt mean we need to start a whole argurment over it, or for you to be a d-ck about it cougar. You can have gearoge gillett standing in front of me, saying it was just a mechanical failure, and maybe i wouldnt believe it. Its none of your concern. Now problem with point a. Cranks go through more testing than the entire engine. magnafluxed, balanced, heat checked, forged. And tested for a specific horsepower, and checked again and again. So how did one slip past the lines of testing? Out of the thousand that are built a year or so for that particular engine. Problem with point B, he said all his gauges were reading perfectly. if the oil pump belt fell off, and the power steering belt fell off, we would have no power steering, and there would be no oil pressure. he said the pressure was fine. You Know maybe it was just a part failure, i just wanted to have some fun saying it was sabotage, and maybe it was maybe it wasnt. BUT NO ONE WILL EVER ADMIT TO IT IF IN FACT IT WAS. So well never know. Youre damn right i would be pissed if i was gettin replaced, when i know im good at my job. Gettin even, im not sure i could do it, but i know a lot of people that would, in a heartbeat. So dont insult my intelligence by saying that we relate any two things just to make a conspiracy. I got a lot of opinions on things, and thats what blogs are for, to voice my opinion, when i see fit. I think global warming is the most BS ive ever heard. How do you like that?

[wsucougarchick05]

Not being a d_ck, blah39. Just telling you to not go flying off the handle and start screaming "Conspiracy! Conspiracy!"

And something can perform flawlessly in testing, practice and qualifying and then suddenly just give way on race day. No part is perfect 100% of the time.

[CDJ]

blah39 wrote:

Just because i think its sabotage doesnt mean we need to start a whole argurment over it, or for you to be a d-ck about it cougar. You can have gearoge gillett standing in front of me, saying it was just a mechanical failure, and maybe i wouldnt believe it. Its none of your concern. Now problem with point a. Cranks go through more testing than the entire engine. magnafluxed, balanced, heat checked, forged. And tested for a specific horsepower, and checked again and again. So how did one slip past the lines of testing? Out of the thousand that are built a year or so for that particular engine. Problem with point B, he said all his gauges were reading perfectly. if the oil pump belt fell off, and the power steering belt fell off, we would have no power steering, and there would be no oil pressure. he said the pressure was fine. You Know maybe it was just a part failure, i just wanted to have some fun saying it was sabotage, and maybe it was maybe it wasnt. BUT NO ONE WILL EVER ADMIT TO IT IF IN FACT IT WAS. So well never know. Youre damn right i would be pissed if i was gettin replaced, when i know im good at my job. Gettin even, im not sure i could do it, but i know a lot of people that would, in a heartbeat. So dont insult my intelligence by saying that we relate any two things just to make a conspiracy. I got a lot of opinions on things, and thats what blogs are for, to voice my opinion, when i see fit. I think global warming is the most BS ive ever heard. How do you like that?

I agree with you 100%, maybe we just wanted Kahne to do well & this crap has ruined his chances. For 1st time in a long time the #9 team has their act together, they didn't need this to dampen their spirits. Mechanical failure, debris from the track, they didn't need it. The only thing being reported is the crank broke. If that has been officially stated from RPM I haven't seen it. Of course Kahne doesn't rank high enough to be news anyways so we may never know. I still say something is amiss at RPM. Kahne has finally voiced his opinion in 2 different interviews, I wonder what took him so long. This is just my opinion no need to put thru the theory tests

[Kasey Fan]

Yeah I agree with all of you....Kasey was proving people wrong and then this happens.. Kasey curse again. RPM changes every season so that has to have a huge affect everytime that happens they need to stay the same and figure everything out..idk I just want him to do good maybe have a shot at a Championship and this looked like the year that it could happen #9 in '09!! but now they need to kick butt more then the other 11 drivers!! ugh Goooo Kasey!! Well at least we know the the whole odd year thing is broken..he made the Chase in a odd year!!! YAY lol

[Sara]

They are going back to the R5 engine. The crankshafts have been having issues during tests but never has happened on the track. Now its happened on the track so they are pulling it. New crankshafts are being made that should be fine

[Kasey Fan Forever]

I was surprised to hear about the R6's being "ticking time bombs" with that crankshaft they've been using, because I never would've thought! He says the R6 isn't much different than the R5, so I don't think he'll be at a HUGE disadvantage with the switch for this weekend...at least, I hope not! Sounds like they'll have the new R6's made ASAP, though and they should be better.

It sucks what happened, but the team is pumped for Dover, so I'm optimistic, too. 9 races to go to make ground...they can do it. Not saying he'll have a Championship run, but I think a top 5-10 in points is definitely realistic. Not everyone is likely going to be perfect from now to Homestead, either.

[blah39]

And he says that the crankshaft has been broken five times in tests, just never in a car on the track, and that everyone in the engine shop has known that the crankshafts were ticking time bombs.

“We all know these cranks do not work,” Pink says.“But we got painted into a corner where we had to use them [with the R6 engine].... Unfortunately, we’ve got more of them just like it sitting here. Everybody was saying this was going to happen sooner or later. Fortunately, it happened later because we got in the Chase.

“We’ve been all holding our breath. And if the [team owners] Gilletts wouldn’t have announced [the merger], the crank still would have broke.”

In fact, Kahne will use the old R5 engine at Dover this week until some new, stronger crankshafts that have been in the process of being made are ready. It has taken about 10 weeks to build the new crankshafts, and the new ones should solve the problem, Pink says.

Im not happy at all that they are bringing the old engine back into play at dover. They started using the new engine at dover because of the old engine. And yes there arent many differences between the old and the new, but at the same time there is. The new engine has a lot more torque and power off the corner, and THATS WHAT YOU NEED AT DOVER. Im so pissed at this team now, if the crankshaft failed during a test 5 friggen times, they should have been redesigning the crankshafts weeks ago, i mean what the hell?? Now that it happened on the track, now they are going to produce new better crankshafts???? What the hell is wrong with management over there??? Who makes these decisions??? If i ever saw the person, that made this call, i would kick him right in the balls. Im hoping for a top 10 at dover, with the old engine thats all i can hope for. And im headed there, ill be there tomorrow through monday. maybe i can see kasey, and tell him to kick that guy in the balls. lol

[Kasey Fan]

Yes you tell kasey to kick him hard in the balls.... and Im kinda glad that we only have to deal with these engines for 9 more races... i think the ford engines will be great!! ugh i can't believe that they have been holding their breathe about the engines such a huge risk but i guess it paid off til now...