NASCAR Cup Series

Kyle Busch encouraged by progress on JGR engines

Published Apr. 1, 2011 6:10 p.m. ET

foxsports

Kyle Busch said Friday that Joe Gibbs Racing officials determined its two engine issues last weekend were valve-related.

Busch refused to go into detail about how much he knows, but said before practice at Martinsville Speedway that he's pleased JGR was able to diagnosis the problems. Denny Hamlin's engine failed midway through the race at California, and Joey Logano's team switched his the morning of the event because they didn't think it would last for 400 miles.

''I know there were some valve issues. I don't want to elaborate too much on it,'' Busch said. ''It's something that at least we know what happened and where the source of the problem is. Anytime that you can figure all that out, you're moving forward.''

JGR has had issues in all five races this season, including Busch's failure at Las Vegas. But he said that problem was ''catastrophic'' and there was nothing left for JGR to dissect.

''We already found the source of last week's issues with both Denny and Joey, so we feel pretty confident that we're heading in the right direction with that stuff,'' Busch said.

Both the engines Sunday were sent to Toyota's facility in Costa Mesa, Calif., for the manufacturer to take a second glance at the engines.

Hamlin, who goes into Sunday's race at Martinsville as the three-time defending winner, suffered tremendously from the failure last weekend. He finished 39th, and it cost him four spots in the standings. He's ranked 21st.