Denny Hamlin's race team will get a jump on next year's merger between the engine shops at Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota Racing Development. While his teammates will stick with JGR engines, Hamlin's car will have a TRD engine under the hood for today's Pure Michigan 400.
The two operations that build most of the engines for Toyota in NASCAR decided to work together next year. Gibbs is ahead on creating more horsepower; TRD has an advantage with durability. By working together in the future, both sides hope to enjoy the benefits of both.
After suffering an engine failure at California earlier this season and a couple more during practice sessions, Hamlin decided he couldn't wait.
"You have to understand, this is a big favor to ask a manufacturer to provide engines for us for the rest of the year," Hamlin said. "It's a lot of manpower; a lot of work had to be done, especially within JGR [Joe Gibbs Racing]. There's a lot of work that had to be done to get this engine imported into our car."
The two engines are drastically different. To make a TRD engine fit inside Hamlin's car, the Gibbs team had to redesign the engine compartment. The biggest difference is the size and location of the oil pan, plus the location of the alternator.
Hamlin's teammates, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, will have JGR engines for today's race.
"Why those guys decided to change, I don't know," Busch said. "For us and the [No.] 18 team, we're pretty confident in Mark Cronquist and what he's been able to do with his guys at Joe Gibbs Racing. We're staying committed to our guys, our engine department for this year and Mark's still there and all the same guys are still there."
Crew chiefs for Busch and Logano said they're also concerned with the amount of work it would take too long to convert a backup car at the track if there's a problem, which means Hamlin's team will have to have two different sets of replacement parts.
Mania for Danica
Danica Patrick is expected to make her move from IndyCars to NASCAR official next week at the Bristol Motor Speedway, although car owners Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart still aren't ready to talk about it.
The plan is for Patrick to run the full Nationwide Series schedule with Earnhardt's JR Motorsports team and a handful of Sprint Cup Series races with Stewart-Haas Racing.
"It's like I've always said when we have something to tell everybody we'll tell them, but there's nothing to tell yet," Stewart said. "I know there's a lot of speculation, but there's nothing to really talk about yet."
Stewart would like to find enough sponsorship for a full-time third team. Right now he has enough sponsorship dollars for Patrick's selected races, but nothing for the rest of the schedule.




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