Martin, J. Burton see Roush engines fail early

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The much-ballyhooed engine alliance between Roush Racing and Robert Yates Racing stubbed its toe early in Sunday's Daytona 500.

	Martin (6) managed to steer his smoking car back to the garage. Credit: Autostock

Mark Martin blew an engine in a big plume of smoke after only seven laps, and 18 laps later, Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton headed to the garage with engine trouble.

Martin ended up 43rd. Burton was 42nd.

Roush and Yates, with a push from Ford, partnered on engine technology in the off-season, and all parties involved praised the new alliance. Roush's Greg Biffle won the Bud Pole, and Yates' Dale Jarrett won the Budweiser Shootout and Yates' Elliott Sadler won a qualifying race.

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But Biffle had an engine problem Saturday, and the No. 16 team changed engines and had to start at the rear of the field.

Then, Martin and Burton had terminal troubles.

"With the Ford power, we could have a few little glitches here or there trying to merge two systems together," Martin said. "I don't know what happened here. I thought all week we had a chance to win this thing, and I'm not going to get many more chances."

Martin's engine blew in heavy traffic, sending smoke billowing out the exhaust pipe and out the back of the car.

"I couldn't see a thing," Martin said. "The spotter kept telling me to stay up, but I didn't know what up was. I thought I was gonna hit the wall any minute. It's like having a blindfold on."

	Jeff Burton's motor lasted 26 laps. Credit: AP

Burton's engine didn't explode in such a spectacular fashion, but the disappointment wasn't any less acute. Burton immediately told his team over its radios that the engine failure "didn't make the engine deal wrong."

"I got nervous when I saw Mark have his problem," Burton said. "We were riding along fine, running sixth, seventh, eighth -- just taking out time. Something happened, and it happened pretty quickly. These guys have worked really, really hard on this engine program. This is a setback, but it's a temporary setback."

Burton said Biffle's problem Saturday was the first sign of any trouble with the Roush/Yates engines. He wasn't sure if there was any connection between any of the failures.

"Obviously, we did something we shouldn't have done, but that doesn't mean we're pushing too hard," Burton said. "We need to figure out what happened before we make assumptions or try to figure out what's going on. We'd really need all the facts."