Toyota in NASCAR

Weapon · Nov 10, 2006

not sure if this will make me tune in but I found it interesting

NASCAR has confirmed that Toyota intends to compete in the Busch Series in 2006 and is an active participant in discussions about the next generation of Nextel Cup cars and engines, which are slated to debut in 2007, or perhaps 2008.

Bill Davis Racing, the lead development team in Toyota’s truck project, is likely also developing Toyota’s Busch entry, though little specific information has come to light yet.

There’s only one thing that can be said with certainty: When Toyota gets in the game, the game changes. Whether that’s good or bad depends on whom you ask.

Naturally, there are a host of different opinions in the garage about having a Japanese automaker in NASCAR even at the truck level, let alone if and when Toyota makes the final leap to NASCAR’s top rung.
Publicly and privately, Jack Roush is one example of those who have been opposed to having Japanese automakers compete in NASCAR.

Others have very different opinions.

Cal Wells, who owns the No. 32 Tide-sponsored car driven by Bobby Hamilton, Jr., campaigned Toyotas for 20 years in off-road racing and later in CART.

Wells is unflinching in his belief that Toyota’s ascension through the NASCAR ranks is a great thing. “The more manufacturers the better,” Wells told me at Talladega. “I think it’s healthy for the sport, healthy for the series, very healthy for NASCAR. They (Toyota) will make a proper investment in the garage, but the big investment you’ll see them make is in the field — advertising, promotion, tracks. There’s not a person touched by the sport, who makes a living in the sport, whose life won’t be enhanced by having Toyota here.”

Strong words, perhaps, but Wells knows Toyota as well as anyone in NASCAR. On Toyota, he carries garage cred.

Fellow team owner Ray Evernham’s take on Toyota is that it ought to be a wake-up call for the Big Three U.S. automakers. “They’re going to be a tough competitor,” said Evernham of Toyota. “They’ve got money and they are laying the groundwork for a good plan. We’ve known that they’re coming. They’re bringing good stuff, they’re bringing engineering and they’re serious.

“If we want to make sure the American manufacturers can still compete, than they have to get as serious as Toyota is.” Hard to argue with that logic, for sure.

Or as Penske Racing South President Don Miller said of Toyota, “I expect them to come in with both guns blazing.”

Penske is one of two teams pundits expect to someday join forces with Toyota in NASCAR, given that Penske’s other racing division, Penske Racing North, campaigns a Toyota-powered team in the Indy Racing League.

“We haven’t talked to them (Toyota) about it, I can tell you that,” Miller said Sunday morning at Talladega. “We have a contract that goes for another two years with Dodge. I’m sure that when they get really serious, there will be discussions because it’s obvious that we run an Indy car with a Toyota in it. But that’s the other side of the world for us. That’s Penske North. We’re Penske South.”

Chip Ganassi, the other Cup team owner who runs a Toyota-powered IRL car swore up and down in January that he was loyal to Dodge and had no interest whatsoever in doing anything with Toyota in NASCAR.

If Ganassi isn’t interested, what about Wells, whose association with Toyota is the longest in the garage?

I asked Wells point-blank if he’d like to hook up with Toyota and he said he hadn’t talked to Toyota and, more tellingly, his team wasn’t running well enough to interest the Japanese automaker.

“Whoever they select, it will be based on how they’re running: Their performance, how competitive they are and what they can deliver to Toyota,” Wells said. “I think you’ll see them select teams throughout the entire garage area that can really benefit them. I really think that’s how the decision’s going to be made. It’s not going to be who would like to work with Toyota and who wouldn’t. It will really be more about who can deliver.”

So who does that point to?

“It’s obvious who’s going to be at risk, if you look around the garage area,” Wells continued. “Will they promote somebody from truck? Maybe one team, maybe two. Will they go for a big hitter, people they work with already in the IRL? I’m sure they’ll try. Not knowing the intimacies of their relationships with their current manufacturers, Dodge specifically, it would be impossible for me to predict. But certainly Toyota will try to get a marquee team or two and then look at other guys who are available who have great, great, great potential and just haven’t realized it yet, but with a little bit of help could go over the top.”

That would seem to indicate Penske and Ganassi would be the two big names in Toyota’s sights, with Bill Davis and a second truck team perhaps moving up. Next year, it would make sense that they’d add a Busch team or two, too.

So I asked Michael Waltrip, who owns his own Busch team, appears on a weekly television show with Toyota truck racer Johnny Benson, and is the brother of Darrell Waltrip, who both owns a Toyota truck team and is Toyota’s national spokesman, what he thought of Toyota getting into the Busch Series.

I figured, if anyone’s in the know about this, Mikey ought to be, right?

Here’s how it went:

Me: “Michael, what do you think of Toyota entering the Busch Series?”
Waltrip: “They are? They’ve announced that?”

Me: “NASCAR confirmed to me that Toyota is building a Busch car and is involved in discussions about the next generation Cup engine.”
Waltrip: “That’s not true. We don’t know what they’re doing, so I can’t answer that.

Me: “NASCAR said it’s true.”
Waltrip: “I don’t know anything about that.”

Me: “NASCAR said Toyota will submit its 2006 Busch car and engine by July 1.”
Waltrip: “I think it would be great. I think they need to be here. They’ve added so much to the truck series and when you drive a Chevy or a Ford or a Dodge, you want to beat everybody. When the Toyotas show up, that just makes things more competitive and more interesting. If that’s what they decide to do, I think it would be great for the sport. It’ll add more interest and there’ll be more players in the garage area, which is very healthy for the sport.”

Now, I don’t want to start any rumors, but a conversation like that certainly makes me wonder if one or both Waltrips might be part of the Toyota Busch equation next year.

Or maybe in Cup in 2007 … that is, if Toyota decides to go there. Last I heard, no decision’s been made yet."
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Deke · Nov 10, 2006

Yeah this definitely will not lead me to watch nascar, but I hope toyota destroys everyone.

bluetwo · Nov 10, 2006

Same here. It would be absolutely awesome if the brand new for 06 Toyota team could win a lot of races and show that it can build and/or sponsor a great "stock car"...

I'm not going to watch it on TV though, unless I'm somewhere hanging with some people drinking beer or whatever.

LazyGun · Nov 13, 2006

http://www.toyota.com/motorsports/nextel/index.html

And there is a busch page as well. So I assume the Busch thing is definite.
They've been entered into the Nextel Cup for next season for a while now.

yerrow · Nov 13, 2006

they actually had to learn how to make a carb'd engine

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Toyota in NASCAR

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