Frustrated by the sting of engine failures that have hurt their early run at a Chase spot the car driven by Denny Hamlin at Michigan may feature a TRD engine. Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford apparently requested the change.
The only question is will the team find a way to fit this engine into the #11 car? Word is that fitting one of these Toyota Racing Development engines into a Gibbs Racing car is no small task.
“We just knew we were going to have another one before the Chase started if the odds worked out, and another couple in the Chase. We asked TRD to help us out and they were more than happy to help us out.”(ESPN.com)(8-14-2011)
It’s been roughly a month ago that the first word of TRD engines at Gibbs arrived. It’s been only a week since Gibbs has acknowledged that they will shift to TRD motors. And now days later the engine is set to be placed into Hamlin’s FedEx Toyota for next Sunday.