Q&A with Ford engine builder Doug Yates

Doug Yates is a second-generation engine builder who now operates the family racing team — Yates Racing. Doug currently builds engines for Roush Fenway Racing as well as his own team.

What are your primary concerns as an engine-builder?

“The No. 1 job that we have for our teams is to give them the reliability to get to the end of the race, and then, obviously, they want the most power they can get for an advantage. But it seems lately with these cars and the conditions, that we have a lot of really long green runs, so the focus has been pushed to fuel economy…"

What are the challenges of getting the fuel efficiency and horsepower?

“Carburetors are tough to work with and to get the even distribution between eight cylinders is a huge challenge and as our engine company works on different projects with fuel injected and single stacks, you really realize what the challenge is. A lot of Formula One guys can tune each cylinder individually just by a tweak on the computer, but for us, working with a four-barrel Holley carburetor and trying to get good fuel economy is really an interesting engineering challenge."

What’s the best way for people to conserve fuel in their street cars?

“How you apply the throttle and how you start leaving a red light, if you ease into it and baby the gas somewhat and don’t apply it too fast or too long, you can look at your tach and that will give you a good indication. A lot of cars today have a real-time fuel mileage indicator, so you can see what you’re doing with your miles per gallon, so the driver can make a huge difference."