Toyota ready to throw hat in ring

The Bill Davis Racing is one of the teams expected to use the company's vehicles.
By MIKE HARRIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sitting on a crowded concrete floor in the new Toyota Racing Development, USA shop, among the many tubeframe chassis and race trucks in various stages of readiness, are the unfinished chassis for a NASCAR Car of Tomorrow, a completed 2006 Camry race car and an almost done 2007 Camry version.
In a nearby meeting room, Lee White, senior vice president of TRD, nods toward the shop.
"This was the worst timing ever for us," White said. "If there had just been a Car of Tomorrow, we would have been smiling, because it's a great leveler for the playing field and it's only going to be used in a third of the races next year.
"Instead, we're learning about what we call the Car of Today and the Car of Tomorrow, as well. It's added a lot of work for everyone -- all of the teams, all of the manufacturers. But, because of our unique circumstances, it's been tough."
Toyota dipped its toes in the NASCAR waters in 2000 with a car powered by one of its engines in the low-level Goody's Dash Series. A much bigger stir was created among those who believe that NASCAR should be for American makes only when the Japanese company entered the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004.
The emphasis
Now, the company that has become one of the world's most successful automakers is getting ready to enter NASCAR's top two series -- Nextel Cup and Busch -- in 2007, with a heavy emphasis on Cup.
Beyond the parochial idea that teams should not be racing foreign stock cars on NASCAR's ovals, there also has been the fear that Toyota -- which recently leaped into Formula One racing with a yearly budget some estimate at $500 million -- will throw cash at its newest auto racing project, raising the cost of racing and altering the NASCAR culture.
Toyota also has been accused of trying to steal drivers and crew members from current teams aligned with Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, the three manufacturers currently racing in Cup and Busch. NASCAR owners such as Jack Roush and Doug Yates say they fear Toyota will use its vast resources to attract people away from other garages.
"One of the things that's made NASCAR competition so close and so interesting to all the fans is that there's parity. There's parity among the drivers' ability at the very top. There's parity technically among the teams. There's parity among the manufacturers with regard to what they're able to do or willing to do with supporting the teams and with bringing technology," Roush said. "Toyota has a chance of breaking that parity, and we'll just have to see what happens."
But White and Jim Aust, vice president of Toyota Motorsports and president and CEO of TRD, say such fears are unfounded. Both say the company's intent is to let TRD give the Toyota teams as much engineering help as they need, and let the teams do the rest.
Waltrip, BDR in the mix
Toyota announced in January that it will run six cars in Cup in 2007 -- two each with the new Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull teams, and two with the Bill Davis Racing organization that now races Dodges. So far, the only drivers confirmed for any of those teams are Waltrip and former Cup champion Dale Jarrett, who caused some waves when he signed last weekend to drive Waltrip's second car.
"The thing is that Toyota is not bringing the money to support those teams," Aust said. "They have, or will have, primary sponsors. Whoever that sponsor is, they're the ones that are going to bring the money to the team.
"We will not have a factory-sponsored car when we get to Daytona, so it's a mystery to us how that continues to be out there. We've never, ever been able to determine how much money any of the other three manufacturers are spending. So it's interesting that some journalists have the opinion that we're going to be outspending everybody."
As for the idea that Toyota is stealing drivers and crewmen, Aust said, "In the past four months, TRD in North Carolina has hired one guy and transferred seven people from our open-wheel operation in California.
"We are planning to add about 20 more people for engineering support when our teams are up and running. But we will not be pursuing people with contracts. We'll probably be adding those people toward the end of the season as contracts expire. We won't be poaching people."
The curveball that NASCAR threw at Toyota was the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow, a bigger, boxier car focusing more on safety and less on aerodynamics than current Cup or Busch sedans. The plan is to blend the new cars into the schedule during the next three seasons, starting with Bristol next spring.
Another version
Meanwhile, Toyota also has to come up with a current version of its Camry to race the rest of the schedule in 2007 and 2008. That was complicated when the company decided to make major changes to the front of its production Camry for 2007.
That means the car Toyota had approved by NASCAR last summer already is obsolete, with the new version to be submitted for approval by June 30. The TRD people don't seem too concerned.
"Thanks to being part of the truck series, we're going to be, I hope, in great shape on our engine, at least in terms of horsepower," White said. "The really good thing about the Car of Today is NASCAR's templates limit what you can do. And our teams are either racing Car of Today or have hired guys who have been out there racing Car of Today successfully, so there's plenty of knowledge."
He said TRD's philosophy is that race teams should focus on racing, the drivers and the crews, preparation of the cars and execution of race strategies. The engineering aspect is better handled by the company and spread equally across the teams, White said.
"We share everything we develop absolutely equally among all our teams and we encourage them to work together to enhance their own competitive level," he noted. "That approach has worked very well for us in the truck series."
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