Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Not all will save money with ‘one-engine’ rule

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001 | 9:47 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

NASCAR's decision to adopt a "one-engine" rule in the Winston Cup Series beginning next season won't necessarily mean teams will save money, according to a pair of team owners.

Beginning with the 2002 Daytona 500, engines that teams use in qualifying must also be used in the race. NASCAR sees the rule as a cost-cutting measure.

Robert Yates, who owns the cars driven by Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd, said that teams who now use separate qualifying and race engines will simply spend the money elsewhere.

"It will redirect our funds," Yates said. "We'll pretty much spend all the money we can get our hands on. It's not like we were gonna be able to put some in the bank."

Jack Roush, who fields cars in the Winston Cup Series for Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin, agreed.

"It won't really save any money, except for the people that don't have a qualifying engine program," Roush said. "If they've got short development programs, they'll be able to focus on their race engines and not have to suffer over not having the time to worry over qualifying.

"Whether it's one, two or three (engines), it doesn't matter to me; it won't save me any money. We're still running the same number of miles that you would run otherwise ... so there certainly won't be any savings on labor and development, and very little savings on parts by doing that."

Tony Furr, crew chief for the No. 25 Chevy driven by Jerry Nadeau, said he thought the rule change could actually wind up costing teams more money in the long run.

"I don't know that it will save any money," Furr said. "It might cut down on the work at the racetrack, but I don't know that it'll save any money because you'll definitely have to start out with all new stuff the first of each week. Therefore, it may end up costing just a little bit more money -- I'm not sure.

"Everything will have to be fresh. Especially the big teams -- I know that's what they'll do because they're running for points. It may be something like drag racing where they pull the motors down and re-rod them and stuff like that right there, so that might take an extra guy."

Busch, who started 40th, led for 38 laps midway through the 500-lap race. Busch was third on a restart with 361 laps to go when he tried to get a jump on second-place Ricky Rudd and the two cars made contract. Busch's left-rear tire went flat and he was forced to pit, and lost several laps while his crew tried to untangle the shredded tire that had wrapped around the car's axle.

Although Busch finished 35th in the race, he moved up a spot in the points, to 25th. It marked the fourth race this season in which Busch has led a lap.

The only other time there have been four first-time race winners in a season was in 1988 when Lake Speed, Phil Parsons, Ken Schrader and Alan Kulwicki scored their first wins.

It has been reported that Gordon was the leading candidate to replace Mike Skinner in the ride since Skinner was let go by Childress this summer. Gordon has made six starts this season in the No. 31 car.