July 23rd, 2008 
Journo After last night’s post on conspiracy theories I received a comment about Toyota and not including that in the entry. That got me to thinking about the larger implications and frustration fans are having with Toyota. While their banner run this season has left many questioning advantages the manufacturer may have gotten from NASCAR, the truth is, the vast divide may not be as wide as you think.
Recently NASCAR performed engine tests with Toyota and the other manufacturers. I know at least one non-Toyota team had motors within a couple horsepower of Toyota. While it is true they had a horsepower advantage, it really was not enough to make a difference.
So far this season Toyota has eight wins in the Sprint Cup Series and 14 wins in the Nationwide Series. While Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota have certainly been dominant in Nationwide (NASCAR responded today by removing power from Toyota on that end), that same dominance does not translate to the Cup series. Kyle Busch has won all but one of the races for Gibbs and Toyota. Denny Hamlin is the only other Gibbs and Toyota driver to have won a race.
The key to Toyota success right now? Kyle Busch. No matter what your personal feelings are, the fact is, the kid can drive a race car. Something has clicked over there for him and his team and as a result they are winning races. Obviously the same is not true for Tony Stewart or Denny Hamlin. As far as other Toyota teams go, Micheal Waltrip is having trouble, Bill Davis has not done anything and Red Bull, while slightly improved, is not blowing anyone away.
As far as Busch’s dominance goes, I touched on this in my post, Kyle Busch an Anomaly? Not So Fast. Just as he is winning with Toyota this year, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon did it with Chevrolet in previous seasons. People screamed about Chevrolet performance in those years and NASCAR reacted. It is what they do.
In the end though, Toyota really is not as great as people are making them out to be. Sure they have had success this year, but would that be happening without Kyle Busch?
Let us know what you think. Were the restrictions on Toyota necessary? Will it make any difference? Will Kyle Busch continue his knockout season?
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Hey, if they were really interested in leveling the playing field they wouldn’t let cup drivers race full time for the championship!! The restrictions on Toyota weren’t necessary…Kyle can drive!!!… so can Denny and Tony. I think everyone else needed to step up, not the other way around.
Well, if Kyle is so great and it hasn’t got anything to do with the advantages that Toyota has, why didn’t Kyle win a lot of races last year driving for the so called Powerhouse Hendrick Team? I believe he had one win and led a little over a hundred laps total in cup last year so it’s pretty obvious the yota’s have got an advantage. Tony Steward may not have won a race this year but has been dominant in many races this year only to have a tire blow are bad timing on a pit stop like New Hampshire. Denny Hamlin also has missed some great chances too. And don’t forget Brian Vickers is running way better this year also. And remember, this is Toyotas only second year in cup racing so I’d say they’re doing very well. Personally, I think they have an advantage.
I stated the exact same thing last week in “Ask the Insiders” Kyle is a good driver, take nothing away from that. But tell me how a driver only wins 1 race then wins everything the next year, and how a make in only it’s 2nd year wins about everything, where it couldn’t sniff the lead last year. Nascar would have a pr nightmare if they come out now and say, yea you were all right.
Hold on everyone, I’m not a Toyota fan by any means, but don’t you think your completly forgetting last year when Jeff and Jimmy kicked eveyone ass with the new chevy engine! Toyota does not have a true horsepower advantage, they have a Technoligy advantage with the newest engine in NASCAR.
Next year when Dodge and Ford come out with their new engine we will see them at the front of the feild. Look what Ryan Newman did when Dodge first came on the scene with their new engine several years ago. look what Everham did when he prodected the dodge engine with Kasey Kane, Look what Roush has done when he has found a preformance advantage with the fords.
Its all relavent, When a manafacture comes out with a new engine, they will have an advantage for a period of time. And last, don’t point the finger at Toyota or TRD, they did not make the horsepower, Gibbs did, JGR build all their own engines. TRD is still building the engines for MWR, BDR and Red Bull, look how well those teams are doing and you’ll see the real preformance advantage.
Steve, the new chevy engine was ran first at Texas last year so not all of Chevy wins came from that engine. Don’t think you are correct about Joe Gibbs building their own engines. Remember the all star race, they said they were running their own engines and two of them blew didn’t they? The following week for the 600 they were running Factory TRD Engines. Unless something has changed, Gibbs has been running TRD Engines. As stated, a lot of Chevys success last year was the number of teams and quality of the teams and drivers that was responsible for a lot of the wins. Gibbs was a good team but no where near as dominant as they have been this year with the Toyota advantage. Not a Jack Roush Fan, but he tried to tell Nascar and everyone about what Toyota would do when they came into this sport. If Nascar thinks they can succeed with Toyota being the dominant car in Nationwide and Cup Racing then I think they are in for a reality check. A lot of the core fans Brian France wants to win back are Ford, Dodge, and Chevy Fans and you’re not going to win them back with Toyota Wins! Nascar has made rule changes for engines and spoilers for years trying to even up the competition so this is nothing new with Toyota. My only regret is that they waited till half the season was over with and given to Toyota before they made a rule change. Also, as the announcers noted at Daytona the other week, Chevy is not allowed to run its RO7 engine in Nationwide Racing even though Toyota clearly had and engine advantage. The advantage Toyota has is a slap in the face for teams trying to win races, stay in the top 35, and run for a championship. Again, if this Toyota domination continues, look for even more empty seats in the stands. The Great American Race was almost won this year by Toyota and probably would have if Tony and Kyle had worked together. They did sweep both Jul. 4th races this year. Wait till next year, won’t it be thrilling for the “Great American Race” to be won by the “Great Japanese Car”. Sure, some of their cars are made here but its still a Japanese Company.
I agree with all of the comments. I also understand that yes, in years past a Gordon, or Johnson, or Kurt Busch, or Kenseth would get on a roll and knock out several wins. It just seems so obvious to me, that given all the info, when the sun goes down at night, Toyota has a clear advantage over the other makes. I am not a Kyle Busch fan at all, and yes, he is a very good driver, but I would wonder if he was driving a chevy, ford, or a dodge, would he be as dominant as he has been this year, and TRD as a whole in both series. It is obvious that Nascar sees there is an issue as the decision for the nationwide points out that they made this week. With the economy, car companies being in trouble, gas prices, people can’t afford to spend as much on nascar maybe as used to, they don’t want TRD winning every race because Nascar doesn’t want to hurt TRD feelings. This sport was built on Dodge, Fords, and Chevy, and with the car companies all having major problems, heaven forbid all the teams that would be left in the future would be Toyota’s. Toyota will be the new sponsor of the Nextel cup, well if everyone drives a toyota, doubt Busch would dominate then. Just my biased opinion.
Kyle was dominate last year…Have we all for gotten??? In the COT races if he did not hit the wall or another car,Kyle was usualy in the top 5…His style of driving is perfect for this car………..No one has driven or tested this car more thn Kyle.This does not make him a better driver than everyone else,just puts him ahead of them.
Overall I agree with what both of you are saying. I have been involved in racing for the past 35 years and have watched many different manafactures dominate NASCAR year to year. In most of the previous years of a manafacturer dominating, NASCAR has alway made adjustments to the rules to allow the others to catch up or to slow the faster teams down. I have seen it with spolier adjustments, size angle and so on. I look to NASCAR to make some changes in the cup rules to acheive this.
In regards to JGR, Speed Chanel Trackside had Mark the engine builder for JGR on their show and in his interview he stated that JGR is building and racing their own engines, they are also sharing their information with TRD. I am a Dodge boy from way back, so I would be very happy to see Dodge come out with a new eninge in the near future. To finish up I know that the technoligy availeble today has surpassed what was availble just a year ago. to stay competitive in todays market place all the manafacturers are going to need to use ever bit if it that is availible to them to stay competitive. I also agree with what Jack Roush said a year ago about Toyota coming to a series and outspending everyone else to win. I think you will see NASCAR make changes to keep this from getting out of hand. Toyota is only in their second year, so I think NASCAR is giving them some leway to get up and running, basically NASCAR has given them enough rope to hang themselves.
It’s no secret that Toyota is spending an ungodly amount of money in order to dominate this sport. None of this has suprised me in the least.
Will the other manufacturers have the cajones to man up and do what is necessary to catch up? I’m not so sure about that. With all of the problems the the “little 3,” I see Toyota’s domination continuing.
Btw, if you don’t think Nascar isn’t talking to another foreign manufacturer right now, you’re crazy. With the anticipated cuts in GM, Ford, and Daimler-Chrysler’s racing budgets, Nascar is hard at work trying to replace the money that they won’t be raking over the course of the next few years from these US auto “liliputians.”
Kyle Busch won four races in 2 or 3 years with Hendrick, which was the dominant team during that time span. He was clearly the third best driver on that team. This year he has won 8…EIGHT!!! races and everyone is ready to crown him the best driver of all time. Clearly the fact that Busch is driving Toyotas this year is a major factor in his success. He would not be doing this well if he wasn’t shoved out at Hendrick. He should be shaking Dale Jr’s hand and thanking him every time he sees him. Toyota is head and shoulders above the other three manufacturers right now and JGR is putting all of their effort into the 18 car because they got out of the gate faster than the 20 and 11.
Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon were clearly getting their butts whipped by Kyle Bush in ’08 and Hendricks Racing was embarrased by this and went whinning to NASCAR about the Toyota having an advantage. It seems that restrictions always start being implemented when teams other than Hendricks start winning. Had NASCAR not handicaped JGR in ’08, Kyle Bush would have easily won that championship instead of Johnson. I used to like and admire the Hendrick team until I saw how big of a cry baby outfit of sore losers they truely are.