BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Brooklyn, Mich. — Perhaps you recall several weeks ago when Bill Elliott spanked the NASCAR Winston Cup field and took the win in the Brickyard 400. Well, if you do, and you recall Elliott running down the straightaways in front of second-place finisher Rusty Wallace, you might wonder how in the world his car gave up 55 horsepower to Wallace’s ride in NASCAR administered chassis dyno testing.

In those NASCAR tests the motor in Elliot’s car turned 685 horsepower at the rear wheels following the Indianapolis win. But all the other cars tested that day showed more than 700 hp, with Wallace’s Larry Wallace (no relation)-built motor producing 740 horsepower.

The others tested following the Indy event all showed power over 700 hp with Jeff Gordon’s SB2 based block running 708 hp, Matt Kenseth’s at 715 hp, Tony Stewart’s SB2 based platform giving 733 hp, Wallace’s at 740 and the monster of the lot coming from the Robert Yates camp in the form of the No. 88, which turned a generous 749 horsepower.

If the numbers surprise you, you’re not alone as the consensus among several motor builders is that the 685 hp number seems just a little too much to find it wholly reliable. Granted, there can be some significant testing differences when running a motor on a chassis dyno due to varying temperatures of the lubricants in the driveline. “But not that much,” said one Ford wrench with a laugh.

NEW DODGE STRUCTURE
Dodge shuffled several of its key motorsports personnel this week. The changes will give Dodge perhaps its savvy racer, yet, controlling the reigns of its NASCAR motorsports programs.

The realignment puts former NASCAR engine manager Ted Flack into the position of Program Manager Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Engineering. The move displaces Tim Culbertson, who moves to Manager of Dodge’s Advanced Vehicle Packaging.

"Tim Culbertson has been looking at other opportunities within the company, so he decided to accept a position within [Performance Vehicle Operations],” commented Flack about his job’s availablity. “John Worley just accepted a job as head of PVO Performance Parts and Motorsports. He’s the senior manager over all of it. Two spots came open - Winston Cup Program Manager and the Craftsman Truck Program Manager. They asked me if I wanted to do it and I said, ‘Yes.’ We formed a new position, which is NASCAR Technical Program Manager. I’m in charge of trucks, Cup and anything else we might do.”

Flack, as mentioned, is a racer; and as such should provide Dodge a powerful platform on which to work the garage.

MIS KISSES TWO
Two cars crashed in practice, today, at Michigan International Speedway; and both for the same reason. First, Mike Skinner went hard into the Turn 4 wall, wrecking his primary car for the weekend. Then, shortly after the Skinner wreck was cleaned up, Jimmie Johnson went into the track wall in practically the same location and destroyed his Chevy.

Both cars slid in oil put down by the No. 30 car of Jeff Green. Green then get his oil lines tight and no further incidents occurred in practice.