NASCAR announced its 2015 rules package for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this afternoon. Ford Racing spoke with Roush Yates Engines CEO Doug Yates and got his reaction to these changes.
DOUG YATES, CEO, Roush Yates Engines – WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO WHAT THIS RULES PACKAGE WILL LOOK LIKE FOR NEXT YEAR? “I think we’ve got a lot of work ahead. The engine configuration as we know it is going to change considerably and what that means is a different camshaft. They’re going from flat tappet to roller lifter, which is a step in the right direction for longevity, but as far as the cam design, the cylinder head, intake manifold and exhaust system – all of those things that are related to air-flow – is going to have to be developed and tested over the winter to have a package that’s ready to go race next March in Atlanta. At the same time, they’re reducing the horsepower target 125 and they’re also reducing the RPM from 9,500 today to 9,000 RPM going forward, so there are a lot of changes and a lot of work ahead.”
SO IS THIS BASICALLY GOING TO BE A NEW ENGINE? “In a lot of ways. It’s not a total tear-up by any means. Gene Stefanyschyn and the guys at NASCAR have done a good job of talking to the engine builders and trying to get our input and feedback on how we would like to go about and that process went through many different ways of reducing power, but at the end of the day I think we as a sport have made a good decision and a good cost-effective decision going forward for the engine shops and the teams and the sport. There are a lot of ways you can do it, but this makes sense for the current engine we have today.”
IS THIS ENOUGH TIME TO BE READY FOR ATLANTA IN MARCH? “There’s never enough time and we would work as hard as possible no matter when they told us, so I think NASCAR is trying to do a better job of getting the rules out. They targeted September and we’re here, and now it’s time to go to work. At the end of the day, no matter what the target power level is it’s our job to try to find an advantage and make more power than the next guy and the next organization. That’s the challenge ahead and we’re excited about it.”
JUST TO BE CLEAR. THE RULES FOR DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA HAVE NOT CHANGED, CORRECT? “They’ve held the rules for Daytona and Talladega constant, so that’s good. We know what to do there and we continue to work on our plate program, so this is for all of the open races outside of those two tracks.”
YOUR FATHER, ROBERT, WAS A PROPONENT OF CHANGING THE ENGINE DESIGN YEARS AGO. IS THIS WHAT HE HAD IN MIND? “He was a big proponent of less power and smaller engines and more production-based engines. I would say he was ahead of his time on this one for sure. For an engine builder to talk about less power isn’t a very popular subject. It’s our job to continue to make more. We love more and more power, but at the end of the day this is a competition and it’s a sport and it’s probably not wise for these cars to be running around at some of the speeds we are at the tracks we’re running, so I think in order to make a step forward for the sport this is one of the moves that Brian France and NASCAR feel is a step in the right direction and we’ll see how it goes. It’s time to go to work now and we’ll see. I think this year has been really great from a competition standpoint, so the guys are doing some really good things. This is the next phase for NASCAR and we’re on board.”
HOW WILL NOT BEING ABLE TO TEST AFFECT THE WAY YOU DEVELOP THIS ENGINE? “I’m not sure how I feel about not testing because we have an aerodynamic change and a power change. The way that we achieve the RPM targets is through a gear ratio, so selecting that gear ratio is going to be a bit of a calculation going forward as we go to these race tracks as opposed to testing at the track and seeing exactly what you need. So I have some reservations about that, but we’ll just have to work together with NASCAR. What keeps an engine builder up at night is making sure that we’re designing an engine and the valve train to operate at a certain range. If we’re in that range, we’ve done our homework and we’ve done a good job and everything goes according to plan. If we’re outside that range, either high or low, we may not have enough speed in the car or exceed the limits of the parts we develop. That’s a little bit concerning, but I think we’ll continue to adjust and work with NASCAR to dial that in as we go forward.”
ARE THERE ANY OTHER POINTS YOU’D LIKE TO MAKE? “I think one point is that this isn’t a horsepower-regulated series. I think most people know that, but they don’t test the engines to make sure they make a certain amount of power. The engine shops are free to work on those engines and if you get an advantage, you get to keep that advantage. I think that’s something that may sound a little obvious, but it has come up and we need to make sure that’s understood by our fans.”
Again, NA$CAR has made rule changed that will cost engine builders and car owners millions of $. Every time they run off in another direction on cars and engines, they should have to cough a bunch of dollars. All this does is make them look better at somebody else’s expenst.