New Ford engine to hit the track
The engine debuted last season but has been used sparingly this season with plans for all the Ford teams to be running the engine this summer. Only the Wood Brothers, who are running a limited schedule, have used the new engine throughout this season.
Scheduled to run the new Ford engine at Pocono next weekend are AJ Allmendinger, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards. Roush and RPM will use the new engine in all the remaining races, Reiser said, except next month at New Hampshire and Infineon Raceway and at Watkins Glen and Bristol in August.
Reiser also said that Roush will begin using new cars at Indianapolis in July. The team has been mainly updating cars that have previously run so far. New cars are often lighter — allowing teams to put weight elsewhere in the car — faster and better.
Among the drivers who drove new cars Sunday were Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart.
"Is that going to make us better, I don't know,'' Reiser said before Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "There's a lot of things that we've done up to this point that we thought would make us better and really haven't. In a lot of cases when you look at what we're all doing, maybe we're doing too much. I don't know.
"We sure haven't been able to put the combination together. We've tried a lot of different things, we just haven't put the combination together to get better working equipment.''
Entering Sunday's race, Roush Fenway Racing was winless this season and had not won a Cup race since Jamie McMurray's victory at Talladega in November. Car owner Jack Roush also has said that he believes the organization is behind, compared to other teams, with its computer simulation program.
"We have had a combination of events that haven't gone our way,'' Reiser said. "Everybody is still searching for that direction.'' Roanoke.com