Mexico’s height will test for the NASCAR CUP, XFINITY SERIES teams this weekend

Managers and teams will have more than each other to join when the Nascar Xfinity and COP series this weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

They will also have to face high. The roadway is about 7,500 feet above sea level – the next highest lane in Nascar is Las Vegas at about 2,000 feet height.

The higher height means thinner air. Air plays a key role in horsepower and cooling, and it will be important problems for teams.

Doug Yates, president and CEO of Roush Yates engines, estimates that the thinner sky can reduce the horsepower to 20% for the 670-PK engines.

Danny Lawrence, a long time engine builder for Richard Childress Racing and his director of the XFinity series and Vice President of Alliance Operations, said maximizing horsepower is challenging at such a high height.

“You have to mislead the engine to make it think that conditions are better,” he told NBC Sports.

Daniel Suarez said the reduction of the horsepower would be minimal for drivers.

“I don’t think you have to drive otherwise, but the cars are going to have more mechanical grip, especially at the exit of the corners because you have less power,” he said. “We’re going to lose like 80 to 100 horsepower. That’s a lot. … But at the same time, in the velocity shakes, we are going to lose a lot. We’re going to lose a little bit of everything. ‘

Racing at such a height is new to the cup series. The XFINITY series chased Mexico City from 2005-08. The series was almost seven engine failures per weekend for the first three years (practice and the race). The final year that had no engine failures at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez this weekend.

“I would say we are more concerned about the cooling and the components and the other things we have to secure are properly set up,” Yates told NBC Sports.

NASCAR will allow each manufacturer to have two sets of hood lukewarmers to run during the exercise on Saturday to see which the engine is best cooling. Each manufacturer will choose which Hood Louver he will use and all its teams must use the one selected on his cars.

“The problem we have with the engine is the sleeping sleep,” AJ Allmender’s crew chief Trent Owens told NBC Sports. “It’s getting so hot under the slap, more than the green laps.”

Under green plane conditions, the cars have higher speeds and can get more air. The slower speeds under caution mean that less air comes to the engine to cool it down. As engines begin to overheat, several problems can arise.

“What happens to the engine management software is that it goes into protection (mode) if you don’t get it cool enough before the restart,” Owens said. ‘So you try to prevent it. It does not close the engine, but it starts to fuel and change the timing and something like that where you lose horsepower.

“So, just to have the stuff right is probably our concern that we usually don’t have to worry about any (other) event.”

With the arrangement of Nascar that engines should run two races, most of the engines running in Sunday’s cup race are the second race of the engine.

Yates said many of the Ford engines for the 2.42-mile track in Mexico were offered earlier this year in Martinsville, a short-mile lane.

Yates says the two courses have some agreements, so management of one engine on both tracks makes sense.

“We move to Martinsville every immediately, every shot,” Yates said. “So the power curve has actually moved up a bit of years ago. As the engine call, we have the opportunity to change the intake manifold and the exhaust system today so that we can set up on the base car and have the power of the RPM or a higher RPM range with the two dismantling tools.”