The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
43°F
Current Conditions
Fog
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Toyota becoming NASCAR force

Todd Bodine won last weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 truck race in a Toyota, the fifth for the brand since 2004. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Kevin Kelly The Cincinnati Enquirer
Todd Bodine won last weekend's O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 truck race in a Toyota, the fifth for the brand since 2004. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SPARTA, Ky. – The fan no longer could stand to suppress the opinion. The time to share with driver Robert Huffman a certain personal detail was now.

“It’s about time Toyota got into stock car racing,” the fan told Huffman. “I’ve been driving a Toyota all my life.”

At that time – June 2001 at Kentucky Speedway – Huffman had driven a Toyota Celica for only a few months in NASCAR’s Goody’s Dash Series. It was Toyota’s first dip into NASCAR-sanctioned racing, and it eventually would lead to bigger things.

“If you go outside these racetracks, there are other brands besides Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge,” Huffman said recently. “It didn’t really dawn on me until (the fan spoke up). There are a lot of race fans out there that drive Toyotas.”

Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. is headquartered in Erlanger, Ky. and employs 900 people. The automaker’s largest manufacturing facility outside of Japan is just down Interstate 75 in Georgetown, Ky.

The Tundra truck is made in Princeton, Ind., and is the model used by five teams and nine drivers entered in the recent Built Ford Tough 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway, in which Toyota Racing Development drivers took the second through fourth positions, and had five in the top 10.

Toyota is coming off some of its finest weekends since the automaker debuted the Tundra in the Truck Series last season. TRD drivers, including race winner Todd Bodine, claimed four of the top five positions in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway. A major player in open-wheel and sports car racing for years, Toyota Racing Development began exploring a foray into NASCAR during the 1990s as a way to contribute to the company’s bottom line.

Huffman led the groundbreaking effort – bringing TRD its first NASCAR win, in the 2001 Goody’s Dash Series race at Kentucky Speedway, and championship, in the Dash Series in 2003 – and followed Toyota into the Craftsman Truck Series.

“When Toyota was first going to get into NASCAR, I think there were a lot of people skeptical about what was going to happen,” said Huffman, driver of the No. 12 Toyota for Darrell Waltrip. “When you do that, it gets the other automakers’ eyes and they up their ante.”

Bodine’s win at Kansas was Toyota’s fifth overall in the Truck Series.

That it was the manufacturer’s first victory since Bodine won the Silverado 350 in October indicates the challenge associated with being the first foreign automaker in NASCAR since Jaguar won a race in 1954.

“I think the way Toyota has come in was a smart way to come in,” said Bill Lester, who drives the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. “Now that they’re playing on the same level playing field the other manufacturers are, I think they’re spending a lot of time and effort just trying to perfect what’s really going on there. I think the results are starting to speak for themselves.”

The TRD approach to racing differs radically from that of other manufacturers in NASCAR. Teams lease trucks, engines and other equipment from TRD. Much of the prep work, aside from engine development, takes place at two shops in High Point, N.C.

“TRD does a great job with the teams,” said Bodine, who won two of Toyota’s four Truck Series races last season. “They’re constantly improving, getting better, getting more information to the teams to make them all better.”