Toyota Wants Bigger Slice Of Pie
Thursday, May 31st, 2007 12:49pm EDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
Toyota: When Having 5 out of 7 Cars Miss The Show Just Isn’t Enough…
Yep, that was a smart-ass remark. Hey, I’m entitled on occasion. Right? (Crickets chirp…)
So I’m reading through a little article about NASCAR tire-testing rules, and Owners responses and the testing this week at VIR. Consider it a bunch of complaints that Goodyear’s aren’t available outside of race weekend stops.
What is intriguing, is the last four paragraphs which have absolutely nothing to do with tires, testing, or anything else the article would lead you to believe it contains.
It talks about Toyota, and their attempts to lure Gibbs, Penske, and Robert Yates to their stable for 2008.
The teams being approached in such a fashion was confirmed, according to the article, and it seems legitimate.
Well now, is that so? So much for Toyota’s standpoint of not trying to buy off current teams to get them under the banner with a big “T” on it.
What is seems to come down to is that if you can’t compete with what you have on a consistent basis, throw money at people who are already competitive to try and make things look better.
It appears that Gibbs isn’t really interested, although it notes they haven’t told Toyota “no” yet, but it does specifically mention that Yates is listening, and throws out the bone that Penske is one of the largest Toyota dealers in the world.
Continuing, it mentions of a possible merger between Penske and Michael Waltrip Racing. Come again? Penske joining forces with MWR? By my math, that’s 5 teams so someone would have to go.
Mikey backing out of the seat? DJ “fed up with this” already? This is pure crazy right here, but stranger things have happened.
Gibbs would be nuts to move away from the bow tie, Penske hops around so it may not be out of the question considering the existing ties, but Yates? Talk about a blow to Ford in the big picture of things.
However, at least Yates has a positive out of this. They can’t run much worse than they have been. Then again, with no Toyota’s currently in the coveted Top 35, maybe they could. Blaney is in 36th (92 points out) and Vickers is in 39th out by 214 points.
On the other hand, Ricky is in 31st, and Gilliland is in 34th. So it could be worse, but not by much. I’ll admit that the offerings from Toyota probably sound pretty good in terms of their dedicated support and sharing of information.
I will note though, that the willingness of Yates to listen is speculation, as noted in the article. The only thing I’ll remind you of is the old saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
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With Yates re-upping with Ford for 5 years, I’d say RYR probably used Toyota as leverage with the blue oval folks.
I have always thought and still do, that Penske is destined to be Toyota’s flagship team at some point. A merger with MWR would fit into my vision of NASCAR’s futue, as well. Check out: http://benchracing.typepad.com/bench_racing_with_steve_a/2007/05/super_teams_the.html
Penske does own Longo Toyota, the single largest Toyota dealership in the country, along with others. Newman’s contract is up, so he wouldn’t have to cut any driver under contract in a merger, but he would if it helped the overall organization.
Toyota will never stop trying to improve. Whatever (cash) it takes.
Well Charlie, this is shaping up to be quite funny.
First thing funny, is that Yates has said all along that they are committed to Ford. Even with the DEI rumors floating around, they said DEI Chevy could be a breaking point.
Not that I don’t personally think that Toyota didn’t talk to Yates, but I haven’t seen any other indication from Yates that it was even an option in their eyes.
Second thing that I find funny…
Toyota trying to “lure” existing teams into their stable.
Both Gibbs and Penske are in the Top 20, Stewie and Hamlin being Top 10, while there isn’t a single Toyota in the Top 35.
So how can Toyota have any real credibility at this level to offer existing teams like these anything close to what they have, let alone make it better than their current situation.
“Oh, ignore those other teams, they’re just screwing up.”
Right, whatever.
Long term, I have no doubt that Toyota will find success. How long it takes is anyones guess, but until they are competitive their level of attractiveness just isn’t as pretty as it will be. OK, Vickers runs fairly decent when he makes the show, but you have to make the show first. Reut’s had some decent runs, although the finishes haven’t been there, but overall the Toyota camp has a lot of work to do. Look at Blaney. Only Toyota in the Top 35 at the start, and he couldn’t get it done. DJ had at least 6 races (one more than Blaney) to get it done, and he’s missing races now.
If either of these teams were above 35th, even by a few spots, it might be a slightly different story. OK, no it wouldn’t. It would be… “Ignore the fact that our highest teams are 29th and 33rd, we’re going to make you a champion.”
Until Toyota has a competitive package, I just can’t see teams bailing out from what they have to make a go of it. Even with the sale/breakup of Daimler Chrysler, they’re still saying they’re committed to their NASCAR teams as much as ever. While Dodge might not be as competitive as Chevy or Ford, they still have more to offer than Toyota does at this point.
Evernham is struggling with the new nose, but it seems to have helped Ganassi and Penske is about the same (maybe a tick better) than they were.
Now what I do wonder, from a pure curiosity standpoint, is if a current team that is successful with their cars could turn around and be more successful with Camry than the current Toyota teams are.
For example, with the COT not being “that much” different, could Gibbs take a COT Camry and run like they have been? I don’t know, but I’m curious though. They won’t try it, but I still wonder what would happen.
More realistic is could Penske do it without losing ground on their current success. Vice Top 20, would they be struggling to be Top 30?
With two start-up teams, and a third tier team under their wing right now, could that as well be hurting their level of competition, and why they are going after higher caliber teams? Would it make a difference? It might, but to the degree of success it would bring I have no idea.
Would Bill Davis be doing any better if they had stuck with Dodge? I doubt it, BDR wasn’t strong to begin with. Although without any support from Dodge, that should be taken into account. Had BDR stayed out of bed with Toyota, and maybe moved to Chevy, who knows. It’s all speculation now, and they made their bed and are laying in it now. As Toyota improves their equipment, it may pan out.
This will all be something interesting to keep an eye on though. Mainly because there isn’t much to talk about other than “WWJD™” and “Baby JG” at the moment.
Which, brings us a third thing I find funny…
Kyle Petty summed it up best this week.
Shouldn’t we be talking about racing?
The last two races (Dover and Charlotte) Toyota has shown some real improvement. They are a rookie manufacturer with mostly rookie teams in a very tough year. Underestimating them for the long haul would be a mistake.
http://ccrnascar.blogspot.com
CCR said this on June 7th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Well, underestimating them isn’t something you’ll find here.
However, while they have made some minor improvement recently, their only shining light still remains to be Vickers when he makes the show. Still, their “improvement” recently isn’t near enough to woo such a big dog as Gibbs. Yet.
No doubt that they will get there, they’ll spend enough to do it and do it right, but until they are there or can show that it is really imminent it would be suicide to leave a manufacturer which has taken you to the top and is keeping you up there.