Stewart's team finds cause of broken part
Tony Stewart's team is certain it has found the source of the fuel pump issue that developed at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend.
Crew chief Greg Zipadelli and his Joe Gibbs Racing team are trying to ensure they will not have a similar problem in the future. Stewart led 257 laps before the failure relegated the two-time Cup champion to a 35th-place finish at Bristol.
"It broke, plain and simple," Zipadelli said. "But after looking at how it broke, we think we've found a way to make sure it doesn't happen again. That's what we do here. We push parts and pieces to their limits, and when they break, we find out why and make them better. "
Zipadelli said the issue was with a cable in the system.
"It's a cable that gets driven off of the oil pump, that then runs to the fuel pump, which is in the trunk of the car," he said. "All of the Chevrolet teams are having to go with this setup, because with the new motor we'll be running (the Chevrolet R07), it doesn't have a fuel pump on it, so you can't run it old style."
Zipadelli added that there's nothing new with the way the team set up the car. This is how the cable ran the final 10 races of last year in Stewart's car and in 20-22 events with teammate J.J. Yeley.
"We've been running it a lot, even at places we didn't have to just because we wanted to perfect the new system," he said. "Because once we start running the new engine, a cable-driven fuel pump is all you can run."
Tony Stewart's team is certain it has found the source of the fuel pump issue that developed at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend.
Crew chief Greg Zipadelli and his Joe Gibbs Racing team are trying to ensure they will not have a similar problem in the future. Stewart led 257 laps before the failure relegated the two-time Cup champion to a 35th-place finish at Bristol.
"It broke, plain and simple," Zipadelli said. "But after looking at how it broke, we think we've found a way to make sure it doesn't happen again. That's what we do here. We push parts and pieces to their limits, and when they break, we find out why and make them better. "
Zipadelli said the issue was with a cable in the system.
"It's a cable that gets driven off of the oil pump, that then runs to the fuel pump, which is in the trunk of the car," he said. "All of the Chevrolet teams are having to go with this setup, because with the new motor we'll be running (the Chevrolet R07), it doesn't have a fuel pump on it, so you can't run it old style."
Zipadelli added that there's nothing new with the way the team set up the car. This is how the cable ran the final 10 races of last year in Stewart's car and in 20-22 events with teammate J.J. Yeley.
"We've been running it a lot, even at places we didn't have to just because we wanted to perfect the new system," he said. "Because once we start running the new engine, a cable-driven fuel pump is all you can run."