DanicaPack: April 2015

NASCAR Richmond International Raceway , 2015/04/25

Joe Logano took the pole with a lap of 21.248 seconds at 127.071 mph. The September 2014 pole winner was Brad Keselowski with a lap of 126.618 mph. Brad went on to win the race, taking the pole and the win. Denny Hamlin qualified second and coming of a win last night in the Xfinity series, it would be a great achievement if he could do the double and win the Sprint Cup race also.

The pole time was marginally faster than last year. Danica Patrick having finished a very strong 9th in Bristol could do well again on this short track. She qualified in 21st with a lap of 21.470 at 125.757 mph.

The full qualifying times appear below.

Start Pos	Driver	Quali (mph)	Quali (secs)
1	Joey Logano	127.071	21.248
2	Denny Hamlin	126.796	21.294
3	Kurt Busch	126.606	21.326
4	AJ Allmendinger	126.570	21.332
5	Kevin Harvick	126.428	21.356
6	Martin Truex Jr.	126.115	21.409
7	Brad Keselowski	126.027	21.424
8	Matt Kenseth	125.821	21.459
9	Jamie McMurray	125.587	21.499
10	David Ragan	125.471	21.519
11	Jeff Gordon	125.348	21.540
12	Kyle Larson	124.977	21.604
13	Tony Stewart	126.416	21.358
14	Brett Moffit	126.410	21.359
15	Paul Menard	126.357	21.368
16	Chase Elliott	126.328	21.373
17	Clint Bowyer	126.310	21.376
18	Carl Edwards	126.227	21.390
19	Landon Cassill	126.180	21.398
20	Austin Dillon	126.168	21.400
21	Danica Patrick	125.757	21.470
22	Justin Allgaier	125.657	21.487
23	Ryan Newman	125.511	21.512
24	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	124.960	21.607
25	Casey Mears	127.310	21.208
26	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	127.262	21.216
27	Aric Almirola	127.071	21.248
28	Josh Wise	127.053	21.251
29	Sam Hornish Jr.	126.892	21.278
30	David Gilliland	126.826	21.289
31	Cole Whitt	126.802	21.293
32	Greg Biffle	126.695	21.311
33	Jeff Green	126.654	21.318
34	Trevor Bayne	126.559	21.334
35	Joey Gase	126.541	21.337
36	Jimmie Johnson	126.517	21.341
37	Matt DiBenedetto	126.517	21.341
38	Michael Annett	126.452	21.352
39	JJ Yeley	126.062	21.418
40	Kasey Kahne	125.909	21.444
41	Alex Bowman	125.377	21.535
42	Alex Kennedy	125.354	21.539
43	Reed Sorenson	123.220	21.912
DNQ	Jeb Burto	125.517	21.511
DNQ	Brendan Gaugha	124.746	21.644

Start	Driver	Quali (mph)	Quali (secs)
1	Matt Kenseth	128.632	14.917
2	Brad Keselowski	128.442	14.939
3	Carl Edwards	128.322	14.953
4	Kevin Harvick	128.211	14.966
5	Denny Hamlin	127.419	15.059
6	Joey Logano	127.317	15.071
7	Kurt Busch	126.871	15.124
8	Kasey Kahne	126.829	15.129
9	Paul Menard	126.829	15.129
10	Jamie McMurray	126.612	15.155
11	David Ragan	126.436	15.176
12	Austin Dillon	126.262	15.197
13	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	127.081	15.099
14	Kyle Larson	127.073	15.100
15	Justin Allgaier	126.562	15.161
16	Martin Truex Jr.	126.503	15.168
17	Landon Cassill	126.428	15.177
18	Ryan Newman	126.088	15.218
19	Michael McDowell	125.947	15.235
20	A.J. Allmendinger	125.939	15.236
21	Tony Stewart	125.831	15.249
22	Matt Dibenedetto	125.798	15.253
23	Jeff Gordon	125.609	15.276
24	Brett Moffitt	125.199	15.326
25	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	126.378	15.183
26	Danica Patrick	126.328	15.189
27	Casey Mears	126.303	15.192
28	Jimmie Johnson	126.146	15.211
29	J.J. Yeley	126.046	15.223
30	Aric Almirola	125.823	15.250
31	Trevor Bayne	125.798	15.253
32	David Gilliland	125.625	15.274
33	Greg Biffle	125.551	15.283
34	Jeb Burton	125.510	15.288
35	Josh Wise	125.453	15.295
36	Michael Annett	125.158	15.331
37	Clint Bowyer	125.020	15.348
38	Chris Buescher	125.020	15.348
39	Sam Hornish Jr.	124.938	15.358
40	Alex Bowman	124.557	15.405
41	Mike Bliss	124.130	15.458
42	Cole Whitt	124.050	15.468
43	Alex Kennedy	123.610	15.523
DNQ	Brendan Gaughan	124.034	15.470
DNQ	Ron Hornaday	123.682	15.514

Multi Valve NASCAR ..... The More Valves ..... The Merrier!

Its difficult for me as a motorsport enthusiast to believe that a sport as competitive as NASCAR use ancient technology. So think about that for a while..... Ancient technology?

I mean NASCAR are really leaders when it comes to safety. Have a look at the safe barriers that have been designed and upgraded to ensure that drivers have as much protection as possible when they hit the walls. That really is light years ahead of the European racers. Safer barriers are not a NASCAR invention but they did contribute to the development and they are used very effectively in NASCAR today. The safety cell in a NASCAR has been build not as much to improve the handling of the car, but rather to protect the drivers. HANS devices are mandatory to help protect head and neck injuries. They don't race in the rain and considering the fact that most circuits are banked, that's probably a very smart rule. If debris is spotted on the track we see a full course yellow, not just yellow flags, full course yellow and everyone is forced to slow down. Spectators safety is also paramount. High catch fences, areas where fans are not allowed to sit. These measures don't always save lives and fatalities still happen, but the fact is that NASCAR take the topic very seriously and they don't skimp when it comes to safety.

So you are still at my original question. Ancient technology?.

Why would you want to use a push rod motor in this day and age? Two valves per cylinder over head Valve? Just about every motorsport series in the world have moved with technology and moved in to much more technology based engines and just about every road car today being sold is a multi valve engine. NASCAR however seems to have chosen to be stuck in the late 1950's ...... or have they lagged behind?... Well that statement is not really true...

Lets explore this.

Im gonna use the Chevy motor as as an example here.

The basic V8 shape as we still see it today in NASCAR has been around in some form or another since 1955. However since 1974 Chevy in NASCAR have been using a 358 ci V8's that had to based on what consumers could by off of a show room floor. I say based because as the rules have evolved, the basic design had to be based on this basic design.
Parts and internals were a very different story though and massive modifications where allowed, but the basic block and heads had to remain from an external persepctive the same as the V8 in your Chevy standing in the back yard.

The last decade have seen huge changes to the rules in regards to engines. Since Toyota have joined NASCAR in the Truck series in 2004 they arrived with a V8 that they wanted to race. The engine was more like a Formula one V8 than a NASCAR V8. Its important to remember they did not have a production V8 to race, so they had to build one from scratch. NASCAR saw the necessity to move on from production based V8's to purpose build motors, not only to accommodate a new manufacturer, but also because running the traditional V8's had been giving Chevy and Ford their own headaches to keep their engines reliable. Chevy and Ford were happy to comply because they to felt that the development of production based had hit a bit of a brick wall and used the opportunity to plug engine designs of their own. There was also a tendancy to start calling this raceway a "Ford" raceway because the engine dynamics of a Ford suited the particular track and most winners would be in a Ford. The same was true for other tracks that were "Chevy" tracks.

The Box...

NASCAR was faced with a problem though. How were they going to stop one manufacturer from building an engine that would give them a massive power and reliability advantage over the other manufacturers? So to keep things equal, NASCAR decided that they needed a framework to make sure that all power plants were on an equal footing. They did not want one competitor out performing another because they had a advance in engine technology, something which could happen easily considering they were racing with decades old technology in terms of engines. In comparison a 3 liter (182 ci) Formula one engine in 2004 was developing more power, using less fuel, had a longer life span in terms of racing miles, lighter and just over all way more efficient. Its easy to see how Toyota, could build a small V8 that if left to develop whatever they liked could run rings around the other sprint cup cars. That would be disastrous to a sport that was loosing supporters.In response NASCAR created the "Box" its a set of 50 guidelines or perimeters to make sure engines would have similar performance and one manufacturer would not have an advantage over the other. Some of these include Bore spacing, Valve placing.

The production based Chevy V8 (Pre 2007) was called the SB2 (Small Block 2nd Generation). The SB2 was approved and introduced in 1998. Production based engines are not made for racing so there are many issues that race engineers have to try to work out or work around. One for those was a particular problem of cooling. On the SB2 engine the two inside exhaust ports on the block are paired very close to each other and as a result they together build up a lot of heat and cause a hot region. It got hot enough to cause engines and headers to fail.

Chevy SB2

After the rule change Chevy introduced their purpose build engine and on the new purpose build engine the R07, exhaust ports were evenly spaced, eliminating the problem. Cylinders are also spaced further apart 4.500-inch (R07) 4.400 inches (SB2) improving cooling. Another interesting point to mention is that with the SB2 needed around 50 hours to get the engine ready for a race. With the R07 that would not be needed because its purpose build. Each R07 that is made gets send to Earnhardt - Childress racing (ECR) where they are put together and refined into individual masterpieces. These engines are fuel injected now since 2013 and that has provided more power and made the engines more efficient. All NASCAR Sprint cup cars use an ECU made by McLaren. Its a homologation unit that has to be used by teams. The reality is that although the R07 is based on ancient technology, the engine is an absolute gem. It is the best example of constant refinement I have ever seen. In many ways this engine has simple tech but out performs even a modern F1 engine. Piston travel on the R07 engine at 11000 Rpm is faster than a F1 V8 at 16000 Rpm. The reason is the R07 has a much longer stroke. Still very impressive.

R07 Engine

Different Engine units for different tracks.

Would it surprise you that there are different engines for different races? Well considering the technology it would not surprise me. So we have specific engines being made and setup for specific type of tracks. Four engines in total. One for Super speedways, one for speedways, one for mid tracks and one for short tracks. That is expensive people..... Formula one is very expensive and they have one..... only one power unit spec. The difference is though that Formula one engines have multi valve engines, with variable valve timing. Every manufacturer has their own name for this technology. Toyota have VVT, BMW Double Vanos, Honda VTEC. They all work on the same principle though.

Variable Valve Timing.

The concept of Variable Valve Timing is essentially a mechanism through a complex movement of parts on the inlet and exhaust valves, the exhaust and inlet valves can be held open for longer times and can close or open the vales quicker and with more precision than a normal cam shaft and traditional valves with springs could. Now have this work seamlessly with your engine management system, and you get a power unit that not only delivers more power, but can deliver it on lower or higher revolutions, depending on what you have asked your engine management system to do. Oh yes, the car is more fuel efficient to.

There is something about the roar of an American V8 .....

So where can NASCAR go from here? Part of the problem that NASCAR has at the moment, is how do they go to the next generation engine without being able to say effectively what that generation will be. That's a big statement but the truth is that NASCAR has lagged so far behind in the engine department that the latest generation engines that most manufactures are using now are all smaller V6 turbo or 4 cylinder Turbo engines. Just look at the immense popularity of the Ford Eco Boost technology. They have a 3 cylinder 1000 cc turbo engine, that is tiny and incredibly efficient and runs like a bat out of hell. Everything seems to be cleaner, faster cheaper with hybrid technology pushing into this competitive queue everywhere it can. Problem is that all this new technology seems to not gel very well with the traditional race enthusiast. In the 1960's and 1970's going to the Le Mans 24 hours saw great duels between Ferrari, Porsche and Ford. Those great sounding cars provided not only great racing cars, they were exciting to watch and stirred emotions. Now days you have cars having to enter and exit the pit area under hybrid only power, Zero sound!..... Many of them are diesels. Every watched a fast John Deere tractor? Well don't think to much on this, a fast diesel like those you see in Le Mans currently still sounds a lot like like a slow one. It sounds ... well .... odd. Considering the current R07 easily revs beyond 10000 Rpm and can do 11000 Rpm, a smaller V6 turbo purring along at 7000 Rpm is simply not going to keep the die hard NASCAR fans happy. Lets face it, there is something about the roar of an American V8 that is unmatched in any other form of motorsport.

NASCAR is in a dilemma really cause they need to keep their shrinking base of support stable and not have it shrink any more. They really need to grow it but how they gonna do that? Everyone is very worried about costs, and the NASCAR faithful have huge issues with talented ... yes I said talented drivers like Danica Patrick arriving in NASCAR. She has not won yet, but still seems to be rolling in the sponsors and why not? She can reach a million people with one tweet, or Facebook message. As the world has moved on and embraced new engine technologies and other new technology's like social media, NASCAR have clung to the idea of that ole push rod V8 and drivers having to prove themselves in lower formulas first before "graduating" to Sprint cup. Its not just old fashioned it stupid. The truth is that NASCAR is powered by the same basic building blocks that every other motorsport and sport in general is, MONEY! NASCAR is a business.

NASCAR needs to stay current.

NASCAR needs to stay current in terms of motorsport and the fact of the matter is large corporations will not sponsor someone without getting a return on their investment. They care less about someone being a multiple champion in any form of motorsport, than they do about return on investment. Danica Patrick and her management team are masters at giving her sponsors a return. She works her butt off for her sponsors not only on the track but off the track too and more and more sponsors are finding that they not only like her attitude, they want to see more of it. NASCAR have counted their blessings since Danica moved to NASCAR because its opened a completely different Geographic of fans to NASCAR.

What they gonna do about the rising costs though? The Old technology? God forbid they replace it with Turbo technology...... PLEASE!

My humble opinion ..... I think its high time to introduce production based multi valve 4 values per cylinder DOHC technology in NASCAR. They can keep RPM levels high at 8000 Rpm. They can keep cubic sizes the same. what they will have is much more efficient engines that use less fuel, have less emissions, have longer race engine lives, which will help costs, they could have one spec motor for the entire year and the engine management systems could compensate for different track types. Most importantly NASCAR will still sound like a classic American V8 should. Multi Valve engines do have a different ring so they wont sound exactly the same but its close enough. Every Manufacturer in NASCAR has a Multi Valve V8 unit they could use.

For me the most important thing though is that the consumer will have a direct spin off. They can buy race proven technology in their everyday cars they use to get to work, go to school, go on vacation and go do their shopping with. The other possible spin off is that with multi valve V8's its possible for many more manufacturers to join. Most of the German cars produce a production unit that is a V8 and a multi valve. Devolping engines are expensive, but using something that's production based is a lot cheaper.

It really should not be a huge decision for NASCAR to make. This is the natural evolution and its a win for everyone involved. At very least they should discuss this with the current manufacturers and of course the most important people in NASCAR.... The Fans.

DanicaPack

Pages

Saturday 25 April 2015

NASCAR Richmond International Raceway 2015/04/25

Whats On This Weekend 25-04-2015

Sunday 19 April 2015

NASCAR Bristol Motor Speedway , 2015/04/19

Friday 17 April 2015

Whats On This Weekend 16-04-2015

Sunday 12 April 2015

Multi Valve NASCAR ..... The More Valves ..... The Merrier! .

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