■ 10 October 2009 | 5:31 PM
Ford delays debut of new engine
Ford will delay the debut of its new Sprint Cup engine, Doug Hervey, who oversees Ford’s North American racing operations, told me Saturday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway.
The engine was scheduled to have debuted next week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Instead, Ford will debut the restrictor-plate version of the engine at Talladega in three weeks.
“The restricted plate version was developing out very well,’’ Hervey said. “It’s on track to perform well. We’re happy with the development so far.’’
As for the non-restrictor-plate engine, it likely will debut at Texas or Homestead.
“There’s still development items that we’re working on,’’ Hervey said. “We think we just need a little bit more time to refine it, get it where we would like it.’’
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It was about this time a year ago that Tony Stewart was praising David Ragan for how Ragan had improved as a driver compared to his rookie year. Of course, Stewart was one of those drivers upset with Ragan for his driving at Martinsville in one of Ragan’s first starts. Ragan later won a charity auction to ride in a pickup truck with Stewart during the driver’s parade around the track at Atlanta before a race a few years ago in an attempt to talk to Stewart about the Martinsville race.
This weekend, Stewart was asked about Ragan, who is mired in 31st in the points heading into Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway.
“I have to admit, I’ve been kind of surprised by that,’’ Stewart said. “Especially by the growth that he had last year in this series I thought we would see a lot more out of him than what we have this year.
“It’s been kind of a shock and I have no idea why they’ve had the trouble they’ve had but it’s been kind of consistent all year. They really haven’t had any races where they’ve really shined that I can remember but I don’t see him doing anything wrong on the race track that’s keeping that from happening. There is just something that’s just not clicking over there right now.”
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# Jeff Gordon says that while he doesn’t work out at the track, he does continue to get treatment for his back. Gordon said he stretches at the track. He says he also works with a chiropractor to receive a treatment where electric current goes through his back muscles to contract and release them, helping loosen them.
# Mark Martin was the fastest in the final practice session with a lap of 180.293 mph. He was followed by Casey Mears (179.897 mph), Denny Hamlin (179.252), Kevin Harvick (179.131) and Ryan Newman (178.434).
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