Toyota Racing Development is taking additional measures to remedy the issues that have caused a recent rash of engine failures at Cup Series races.
Tyler Gibbs, the general manager of TRD, had stated over the weekend at Richmond Raceway the company was as comfortable as it could be going forward. Although the issues were similar in nature, analysis of each one showed all of them were caused by different things. At the time, Gibbs did not want to go into detail.
Martin Truex Jr. then blew an engine in Sunday night’s race. It was the fifth Toyota engine in the Cup Series since June.
Gibbs followed up with RACER about the issue Thursday morning saying, “If we didn’t beforehand, we certainly now have a concern with our valve springs. The root cause seems to be some inconsistency in the quality of our valve springs. We are working closely with our suppliers to correct these issues.”
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The failure on Truex’s No. 19 engine at Richmond was similar to the No. 20 engine issue for Christopher Bell at St. Louis. Bell led 80 laps in the June 2 event but started to complain he was “blowing up” in the final laps.
A week later, on June 9, Denny Hamlin blew an engine at Sonoma Raceway. It happened after two laps.
Ty Gibbs suffered an engine failure on July 14 at Pocono Raceway. He also complained about his engine a week later, July 21, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We sent a TRD ‘fire team’ from our Costa Mesa (Calif.) engine shop to make tuning updates to all our engines heading to Michigan this weekend,” Gibbs continued. “We are confident that this remediation step will give us the durability margin we need. Our team partners, including our drivers, remain tremendously supportive.
“Our goal and expectation each year is perfect engine reliability. We had only one failure in 2023. TRD takes full accountability for the issues we have had this year, and we have fallen far short of what is acceptable. We will not rest until we regain our form. And rest assured, we will.”
Toyota has six drivers in a playoff position in the NASCAR Cup Series with three races left in the regular season. There are three of them who are guaranteed to be competing for a championship courtesy of victories that have locked them into the postseason: Bell, Hamlin and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick.
Truex is the highest driver on the playoff grid without a victory. Gibbs and Bubba Wallace, the second 23XI Racing driver, are also sitting above the cutline.