Toyotas Debut In NASCAR - NASCAR Racing News, Tips And Picks

Toyotas Debut In NASCAR
By Brit Fryer
Posted: 5:00 am PDT 2007-01-15

One month from now, it'll be time for Toyota -- fueled by bravado and a budget the stuff of legend -- to put up or shut up.

"All the talk is over," Chevrolet driver Kevin Harvick said earlier this week. "It's time to go racing. We're actually going to see what's going to happen (with Toyota)."

Toyota, the Japanese manufacturer that's rivaling the big three (DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors) of the American auto industry, made its semi-official debut Monday at Daytona International Speedway, as the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series began preseason testing in preparation for the Feb. 18 Daytona 500.

Three teams will field Toyotas in 2007, and all three were represented this week -- Dave Blaney with Bill Davis Racing, Dale Jarrett with Michael Waltrip's new team and Brian Vickers with the wild card of all Cup organizations, Team Red Bull.

The Camry has been researched and developed over and over, and expectations are at an all-time high. It must be ready to race by the time qualifying and the Gatorade Duels roll around.

Former series champion Dale Jarrett thinks his is.

"I think we have been very good," said Jarrett, a three-time Daytona 500 champion who clocked Toyota's fastest lap at 186.517 miles per hour. "We're doing a lot of things to see. We're kind of having to do a balancing act to see what we can do to gain some speed ... then what changes can we make that are going to be beneficial to us in the race downforce-wise without hurting the speed too much."

And Jarrett scoffed at talk that Toyota is buying itself a winner.

"It's not like we are coming in and buying everything," Jarrett said. "Is Toyota coming in and stepping things up from an engineering standpoint? Absolutely. That's where they are going to step everything up. Dodge did the same thing when they came in. They had a huge engineering staff and a lot of technology there, and that's where their dollars were.

"It's no different than the amount of money and technology that Hendrick Motorsports has ... it's amazing, it's just tremendous. They can try to put it on the new guy on the block in Toyota coming in that's creating this expense, but it's just the sport in itself. It's the other manufacturers that are doing that, too."

Team Red Bull hardly found any speed, as Vickers was mired at the bottom of the charts throughout this week's test. Vickers left the stability of Hendrick Motorsports for the uncertainty -- and, most likely, a bigger paycheck -- of Team Red Bull.

But the move hasn't paid off just yet, as far as performance.

"It's been a lot of hard work," Vickers said, "and we'll continue to work. But it's nice to get down here to Daytona and actually get on the race track."

This upcoming week, Vickers' teammate, former Champ Car World Series ace A.J. Allmendinger, will try his hand piloting a Toyota around Daytona. Michael Waltrip and rookie David Reutimann will be there in Michael Waltrip Racing Camrys. The other Toyota driver, Bill Davis Racing's Jeremy Mayfield, is not scheduled to attend

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