Joe Gibbs at the NASCAR media tour in Charlotte N.C. (Photo: Tom Jensen SPEED)
After coming within one race of scoring its first Sprint Cup championship in 2010, Toyota’s racing arm might have expected to follow through with the final rush to the top of NASCAR racing last season.
Instead, Toyota hit a big pothole, winning only six Cup races (half of its 2010 total) and finishing no better than ninth (Hamlin) in the point standings and also failing to produce titles in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.
After years of a generally steady climb, NASCAR’s newest manufacturer stumbled.
Entering 2012, Toyota owns one Nationwide championship (Kyle Busch in 2009) and three Camping World Truck Series titles (Todd Bodine with two and Johnny Benson with one). In Sprint Cup, Toyota is batting zero after five years in the series.
“The challenge we face is not winning races, it’s winning the right ones,” said Toyota Racing Development official Lee White. “That’s where we have to do a better job.”
White referred generally to the Chase, which has been quicksand for Toyota drivers. With Kyle Busch and Hamlin, Toyota has entered the Chase with the top seed in three of the past four seasons, but neither driver has been able to close the deal. Hamlin drove within one race of the title in 2010 but lost in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Toyota rolled into NASCAR racing in 2000 by supporting driver Robert Huffman’s efforts in the now-defunct Goody’s Dash Series. Truck racing followed, and the manufacturer jumped into the Sprint Cup Series in 2007 with Michael Waltrip Racing, Red Bull Racing and the now-defunct Bill Davis Racing team.
The first year was a huge struggle, but Toyota signed Joe Gibbs Racing for 2008 and immediately gained a top-level team. Gibbs left General Motors in one of the most visible team moves in recent NASCAR history.
“When we got into the sport, I think everyone probably in this room assumed we were going to write checks and buy teams,” White said. “It never happened. Joe was at the bottom of the heap with Chevrolet and basically elected to come with our engineering support instead of someone who was going to write him a big check.”
JGR put Hamlin and Kyle Busch in the Chase last year, but neither threatened for the title, and the team was plagued by engine problems, opening the way for Gibbs to link up with Toyota Racing Development’s engine program.
JGR president J.D. Gibbs said he has no one to blame but his organization for its shortcomings.
“The way I look at it is all we can control is what we do,” he said. “And they (Toyota Racing Development) give us all the tools you could ask for. There’s nothing they haven’t done that we need. They’ve always overproduced from that standpoint.
“So, really, all we can look at is our team and performance. To me, it’s more on us.”
White said the Toyota teams’ hierarchy got a big jump on the new season last Wednesday in a four-hour meeting between team members and TRD officials at TRD headquarters in Salisbury, NC.
“It started as a meeting about electronic fuel injection, but it ended up setting the tone for how we can use TRD as a link between the organizations that no one else has,” he said.
White said TRD is excited about the off-season changes at JGR (two new crew chiefs) and the addition of drivers Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin at Michael Waltrip Racing.
“As a brand, it can’t all be about JGR,” he said. “That’s why we’re equally excited about the changes and, hopefully, improvements at MWR.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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