The NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday was a big measuring stick for this new Generation 6 car with all the teams. Las Vegas also was a big measuring stick for the folks who build the motors for Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing.
I believe they had isolated what their problem was and found it was in the valve-spring area. Naturally, that doesn’t include Matt Kenseth’s engine failure at Daytona International Speedway, but you just knew that they were going to get it figured out.
This has been an ongoing story dating back to last season, especially where that No. 18 car of Kyle Busch is concerned. I mean, the month of June last year with the engine failures the No. 18 car experienced is probably what kept Kyle Busch out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2012.
So Sunday, the win by Kenseth and strong performance by Kyle Busch was a great measuring stick for the Toyota Racing Development bunch and their engine program.
They ran a ton of miles on Thursday during the open-test session in Las Vegas, and then all six Toyota teams ran the race Sunday without any issues.
Las Vegas is hard on engines. You always see the super-fast speeds and especially the sustained high RPMs. It will put any engine to the test, despite who the manufacturer might be. So I just know all the folks at Toyota Racing Development left Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday night feeling really good because there were no engine issues, period.
