TRD Working Closely with Suppliers to Cure Recent Engine Issues
As the NASCAR Cup Series barrels toward the Playoffs, two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, and one 23XI Racing driver are fighting for their lives to make it into the 16-driver Playoff field. With just three races remaining in the regular season, Martin Truex Jr., and Ty Gibbs, who have each had close calls for wins this year, remain winless and need to reach victory lane or maximize points down the stretch to secure their Playoff berths.
However, both drivers have experienced an engine failure once over the last three races, which has thrown a wrench into the points situation for both drivers. Truex was the latest victim of a TRD powerplant gone awry this past weekend at Richmond Raceway, when his motor let go on Lap 251, resulting in a last-place finish.
Engine issues for @MartinTruex_Jr!
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 12, 2024
The No. 19 has headed behind the wall. pic.twitter.com/MtEPxtS5i6
Bubba Wallace, the driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota Camry XSE, is the third TRD driver locked in a spirited points battle to make the Playoffs. Fortunately, for Wallace, he has yet to suffer an engine issue (knock on wood).
Three races ago, Gibbs saw his hopeful day at Pocono Raceway, where he started from the pole, come to an end on Lap 133 when a chocolate-milk-looking mixture of oil and engine coolant began to exude from the exhaust pipe of his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE.
Give the camera operator a raise for this one. 📹 pic.twitter.com/cjKahU8hbp
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 14, 2024
Add in a Lap 2 engine failure for Denny Hamlin at Sonoma Raceway, and a motor issue at Gateway, which hampered Christopher Bell's shot at the race win, and that equals four TRD engine problems over an eight-race span. Needless to say, with Truex and Gibbs needing to maximize their points in order to make the Playoffs, that is a concerning statistic. And it is something that TRD is taking very seriously.
"The problems were similar but they were caused by different things," Tyler Gibbs, TRD General Manager said at Richmond. "We'll kind of leave it at that; I don't want to go into too much detail on it. But there were a couple of different issues associated with that. Denny's was the only one that was very, very different, and again, we understand broadly what happened. It was a couple of mechanical things; a couple of other factors involved. But not an over-rev or anything like that."
On Thursday morning, Tyler Gibbs provided an update to RACER's Kelly Crandall, in which TRD has seemingly pinpointed their recent engine woes to problems with the valve springs within their motors. According to Gibbs, TRD takes the situation very seriously and is working with its suppliers to cure the problem for NASCAR teams going forward. TRD is taking steps to make sure the powerplants in its NASCAR Cup Series cars this weekend at Michigan are unaffected by the issues.
"...if we didn't beforehand, we certainly now have a concern with our valve springs," Gibbs said in the statement to RACER. "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... We sent a TRD 'fire-team' from our Costa Mesa (Calif.) engine shop to make tuning updates to all our engines heading into Michigan this weekend. We are confident that this remediation step will give us the durability margin we need."
TRD has been notoriously reliable from an engine standpoint, as Toyota only experienced two engine failures all of last season between Joe Gibbs Racing's four-car stable and 23XI Racing's two-car team. To have four issues in an eight-race stretch is certainly not within the norm for TRD, and while everyone will be on pins and needles this weekend at Michigan, a track known for high straightaway speeds, which push the RPM boundaries on engines.
If TRD can make it through the weekend with no issues, it should allow a sigh of relief for everyone involved that the manufacturer has potentially cured what has ailed their engine program in recent weeks. And for Truex, Gibbs, and Wallace, the cure couldn't come at a better time.
Heading into this weekend, Truex sits 13th in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Grid, 78 points to the good, Gibbs is 14th, 18 points to the good, and Wallace is 15th, three points to the good. One bad week can drastically change the outlook for all three Playoff hopefuls.
TOBY CHRISTIE