Ford has problems with new engine?

Ford's continued delay of the debut of its new NASCAR engines is drawing questions: Why the long delay of the motor that was unveiled in January. Reliability issues are a possibility. But no one is saying. The engine was to have run in Sunday's Michigan 400, but its debut has been delayed again. It was to have run at Daytona in July too, but didn't.

Rivals say that the delay apparently means that Ford won't be giving the new motor in any of its championship contenders this fall. And they're calling Ford's delay "strange," since the company could easily put the new engine in the cars of men clearly not making the chase and not risk any title contenders.

The man in charge of the project, Doug Yates, wasn't at the track over this weekend to discuss the issues.

Jim Covey, a top General Motors/Chevrolet race engine designer, says he knows how difficult it can be to get a new NASCAR up and rolling.

Covey won honors as 2007 race engine designer of the year for his work on the now-standard Chevrolet R07 engine, which is dominating the NASCAR tour this season. "One thing we at Chevrolet had going for us, in the development of the R07 was we had four different teams working on it, and the competition helped us," Covey said. "Now not every one of those teams got all it may have wanted in the new engine, but the competitive effort helped the overall project." More at MikeMulhearn.net