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Toyota might have more than three teams in its debut year in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series after all.
Jim Aust, vice president of Toyota Motorsports and president and CEO of Toyota Racing Development, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that two of its current teams in the Craftsman Truck Series are hoping to run some races in 2007 with the new Car of Tomorrow that NASCAR plans to launch at Bristol next spring.
Germain Racing, which fields trucks for Todd Bodine and Ted Musgrave, and Wyler Racing, which has Jack Sprague as its truck driver, have told Aust they are looking for sponsorship to run a limited Car of Tomorrow schedule next season.
The Car of Tomorrow is a bigger, boxier vehicle with a front-end splitter that NASCAR has designed to eventually replace the slick aerodynamic models that manufacturers spent the past 10 years developing. The Car of Tomorrow is scheduled to run in 15 races next season in a phase-in process that will be complete by 2009.
NASCAR officials held the latest Car of Tomorrow test on Tuesday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Only Chevrolet and Dodge took part. Ford teams didn’t participate because they are waiting for NASCAR to approve a final car design before they begin building another model, and Toyota didn’t have a car at the test because its Car of Tomorrow is not yet completed.
The next test is Aug. 21 at Michigan International Speedway.
Aust said it was something of a surprise when the Germain and Wyler teams approached him about competing in Cup next year.
“We had planned on only running three teams and six cars next year, but these guys came forward and said they’d like to look into running some races with the Car of Tomorrow to test the water,” Aust said. “This just came up in the last couple of weeks.
“Both teams have said they would like to eventually come up into the (Cup) series sometime in the next couple of years and this could be a good test for them.”
Aust said the teams are uncertain at this time how many races they would run in Cup in 2007 but that their schedules would definitely not include any races with the current cars.
“It doesn’t make any sense for them to invest in current cars and run only a part of the season,” Aust said.
He said each team is looking at running just one car, with Bodine, a former Cup driver, in the Germain entry. Aust said the Wyler team has not decided who would drive its car.
Toyota announced in January that it would 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 will drive for him.
Asked if any of its other truck teams might step forward with Cup plans, Aust said, “I don’t think there will be any more than that.”
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NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
