Friday, January 04, 2008

• Toyota Swears To Dominate NASCAR 2008

  The juggernaut car maker from Japan has just had enough of eating humble pie. Toyota has finally shed its modest stance and is now vowing to win the NASCAR 2008.

  The bold declaration was made by Toyota Motor Sales’ Vice President for motor sports, Jim Aust in the company’s official blog, Open Road. Aust proclamation refers to a NASCAR-specification built Camry that will vie to bring home the gold for Toyota. The racer is said to compete in the Sprint Cup 2008.

  The prediction isn’t far fetched. “Keep in mind that Toyota posted just two top-five finishes and 11 top 10s in 2007, the brand’s first in NASCAR’s premier series,” read Toyota’s official blog.

   Toyota entered the inaugural Cup with three teams composed of seven cars. Two of these teams are greenhorns. The brand is guaranteed two spots in the first five races. This leaves the remaining team the task of battling it out for a qualifying position. Consequently, the brands focus was just to make the grade.

   The tiger brand has also announced its line-up of drivers in the person of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kaye Busch. These fine men and women will be manning the Camrys in the 2008 series. The three already have guaranteed spots for the first five races. Renowned former Joe Gibbs driver, J.J. Yeley is also set to ride the Camry. Yeley is now with Hall of Fame Racing. All in all, Toyota has a maximum of 11 cars (and a minimum of five) in the field. 

  Toyota’s V-8 which powers its Tundra entries intended for the NASCAR Craftman Truck was only allowed to enter the Busch franchise. The Tundra is also required modification for Nextel Cup eligibility.

  It seems that Toyota is on the road to greatness, even managing to bump off Ford Motors in the second place for the most units sold in 2007. Toyota even managed to “out produce” GM, making the Japanese brand the largest automaker in the world.
  

  Toyota’s Aust admitted that it doesn’t expect to “compete head to head” with established racing giants Ford, Chevy and Dodge in this year’s cup. However, these brands should watch out for 2009.

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