Toyota in nascar
(12 posts, started )
Toyota in nascar
Nascar has always been dominated by american manufacturers. But Toyota has dominated the Nascar truck series. This year (2007) toyota wants to dominate in Nascar Nextel cup too (the main nascar). Think toyota can handle it?

So far, no (but i'm rooting for them). Dave Blaney has the best Toyota Camery on the track but he has the worst luck and cant even finish. While Michael Waltrip racing (michael waltrip, david reuttimann, and dale jarrett) can barely make the races, let alone finish well.

Red Bull racing (from F1) has also decided to try their luck in nascar with toyotas but so far they are the worst toyotas on the track. A.J. Allemdinger cant qualify for a single race (he even blew an engine qualifying!!!!) and Brian Vickers doesn't look to strong this year (even though he gave toyota a top 10 but that was a fluke. Besides that amazing run the toyotas can barely reach the top 30.)

Was toyota too excited with their F1 and Truck success? Should they have waitied a little while to learn the games of Nascar? Should toyota even expand to nascar?

I'd like to think that nascar's opening up to other nationalities. But of course they did already (two foreign nascar series, Canada: cascar series, Mexico: corona stock car series. And three foreign drivers: Hideo Fukuyama (not racing anymore), Christian Fittipaldi (not racing anymre), and Juan Pablo Montoya (nascar rookie)).

Also with all that extra teams (toyota's enterance), Nascar is also harder to qualify (which kinda pisses off a lot of teams). (before there were around 46 cars in the enterance list for each race, now with toyota there's around 52. (nascar's field consists of 43 cars))
Cool. But where is the link
I can see why Toyota did that, they all but destroyed the US cars on the market, and the only sucessful advertising that keeps US manifacturers alive is NASCAR.
Way to Go Toyota... Im going to laugh if Japanese Technologies beat American even on American's turf.

(That's all of course IMHO)
Figures, the NASCAR demographic is probably the only untapped market Toyota has left in the US.
Sorry this is not an article this is my own observation (i've watched nascar for a while). I've watched the F1 2005 season but didn't continue watching anymore. From what I've seen Red Bull Racing is not doing too bad.

However, Toyota in nascar is not doing well what so ever (read my original post). Nascar nextel is completely different from the other stock car series (truck, USAR). I think toyota is over anxious in expanding to nascar. Just because you've had success in Truck and F1 doesn't mean you should automatically jump to Nascar Nextel.
#6 - JJ72
toyota was never successful in F1.
it's a lot better than their nascar run.
Quote from lizardfolk :Sorry this is not an article this is my own observation (i've watched nascar for a while). I've watched the F1 2005 season but didn't continue watching anymore. From what I've seen Red Bull Racing is not doing too bad.

However, Toyota in nascar is not doing well what so ever (read my original post). Nascar nextel is completely different from the other stock car series (truck, USAR). I think toyota is over anxious in expanding to nascar. Just because you've had success in Truck and F1 doesn't mean you should automatically jump to Nascar Nextel.

"Go big or go home" was their motto, I would think. Still you are right as far as racing itself goes; they might have had better initial chances in a feeder series. But look at all the publicity they got going straight into nextel. Sure, a lot of it was of the "damn foreign invaders" kind but a lot of curiousity as well. Any publicity is good publicity is it not?
Any maybe this means we'll see a TRD pushrod Toyota musclecar in the future
#9 - th84
Toyota wasnt dominating from the start in the truck series, it took a little time (granted, not much) for them to "learn the ropes" and start winning on a regular basis. I think the same will be said for the cup series also. I have been a fan of nascar for a long time, one thing I have learned is that winning takes lots and lots of money, which toyota is already spending lots of.. it ill only be a matter of time before they start winning in the cup series also. Nascar is gonna do everything in their power to be sure they do well, they are spending to much money not to. (Nascar already has tbh, ie allowing Michael Waltrip to race the daytona 500 even though they found jet fuel in his intake)

The short term problem for toyota is their driver selection. Dumping all that money into programs like Michael Waltrip racing and Bill Davis racing was their first mistake. Bill Davis has never been very sucessful in the cup series, and Michael Waltrip (as a driver) went a LONG time before finally winning a race... and those win's were due to DEI's domination of the restrictor plate races at the time (IIRC, he has only won one non-restrictor plate race). Red Bull just has to learn alot more about what it takes to run well in nascar. I dont think they are going to last very long.

The only "proven" driver that drive's a Toyota is Dale Jarrett, who is like 104 yrs old. Once they start doing a little better and are able to sign a couple of the "better" driver's, I think they will start winning races, but not championship's..
Dodge struggled their first year too...even after CTS success...

*also don't forget, nascar makes the manufactures run a completly differnt block/head package for cup than truck, so its not like they could just throw a bigger carb on it and go to town, they are now building another completly new engine package*
I think Toyota made a bad decision supporting some underdog teams. Michael Waltrip, once again did not make the race for this weekend (4th time i believe). I feel sorry for him. David Reuttiman also did not qualify. Other underdogs like Kenny Wallace (#78), Mike Bliss (#49), Jeremy Mayfield (#36) and the Red Bull Cars (#83, #84) qualified, however Michael Waltrip and David Reuttiman did not.

The #22 was better with Scott Wimmer behind the wheel. It's such a shame that Scott Wimmer is struggling so hard. IDK if Blaney is a bad driver or just so unlucky. He never finish well.

Actually, I agree that Toyota needs time. Nascar isen't a walk in the park as people claim it is.

BTW, on a lighter note, good job to Kenny Wallace (finished 24th two week ago), and Mike Bliss (finished 21th last race) who did really well this recent weekends. Furnature Row and BAM Racing's been struggling very hard recently and it's good to see them finish well. I'm hoping they'd finish well this weekend (Wallace qualified 27th and Bliss qualified 19th)
If a yank version of Ralf drives for NASTYOTA euh.. well then it will never work eh!

Toyota in nascar
(12 posts, started )
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