Toyota executive says TRD and Waltrip team starting from scratch

[doh]

http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3862.html

Toyota executive says TRD and Waltrip team starting from scratch on new car: Toyota officials knew the company’s first season in Nextel Cup would be tough, but never dreamed it would be this difficult. “We certainly didn’t expect all seven cars to make every race, but we didn’t really think it would be this bad,” said Jim Aust, president of Toyota Racing Development. “Here at Phoenix, we figured we wouldn’t get seven in, but we thought it would be five, not three.” Before Saturday’s race, Aust said Toyota was working on a project with one of its new teams, Michael Waltrip Racing, to rebuild a car from scratch and try to improve the overall performance. “We’ve been working on this project for about three weeks,” Aust said. “We took apart the car and weighed every part then put it back together. We’re looking at every bolt. We’ll take the car to the wind tunnel and, once we see we’ve got something better, we’ll get it to all of our teams.” Aust said Toyota Racing Development in California also is working hard on improving the Cup engine. “I think we’ll see some real improvement by Charlotte (in May),”

[LAChevy24]

toyota just sucks in nascar. and not having the most talented drivers probably doesnt help. to make micheal waltrip your top driver was a stupid choice. they guy can only compete on one type of track, and that was just when he was with a top team.

[doh]

Mickey was a good choice, his personality, and constant sponsorship plugs, make him a great choice for a brand getting it's start in NASCAR.

Toyota knew they were not going to come "out of the box" winning races, so any lime light out of the "winners circle" is good

[Commodore]

Or...you could just exit NASCAR and stop trying to pass yourself as American. You're not. You're headquatered in Japan and thats where the nearly $200 billion in revenues from last year went.

[jzchev28]

i hope they never win a race....waste a bunch of money and get nothing but shame out of it.

[tom3]

Competition is a good thing. I see that Chevrolet is dominating the races with the new car (COT) so I'd guess the other car teams are also working overtime to get up to speed. I was wondering if Toyota would step it up or pull back on their involvement? Now we know. And I do like those chrome wheels on Jarrett's number 44 car too. Haven't heard much from Chevy's new engine except a couple blew up last week, should get interesting when it starts showing up for real. Just rambling on here......

[tom3]

I wonder if any NASCAR driver has ever ended the season with negative points? Could happen this year?

[HoeyHimself]

I'm going to say it...Waltrip is a jackass. There, it's been said, I know many of you have been holding that back yourselves.

Toyota is to Nascar like Toyota is to the car market...a disease. A man who had been diagnosed with lung cancer was given an offer..."If you drive and own this Prius for the rest of your life, your cancer will be gone forever.."...the man paused, lit up a ciggarette, and walked away.

Thats not supposed to be funny..it's true! I saw it on A&E this morning.

[darndot]

I thought Toyota might distance themselves from Waltrip with all that has happen. I don't know how they are going to test the new car that they are working on. DJ only has one more provisional start left this year, Mikey can't drive. It is going to be a upward battle for them.