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* Toyota in Cup - 2007? CTS in 2004 UPDATE: While it?s years from an official announcement, Autoweek has word that an agreement has been reached between Toyota and NASCAR for Toyota to race in Winston Cup in 2007. That?ll be three years after it starts in Craftsman Truck in 2004. Toyota engineers are working on the carbureted V8. It?s still on the computer at this point, but will soon come to three-dimensional form. One problem with the engine is casting it in iron. Most Toyota blocks are aluminum alloy, but engineers found a Toyota facility in Japan that still casts in iron. The Craftsman entry will feature a Tundra body and the Cup car will be a Camry, ?whatever the Camry will look like then,? Toyota sources said.(Autoweek)(12-24-2002)
UPDATE: NASCAR executives are interested in getting Toyota into the sport, and they have had a number of talks over the past few years. The discussions intensified last spring, with NASCAR hoping that Toyota might have a truck ready for this year's SpeedWeeks. Now Toyota's time frame appears to be for a 2004 Truck debut, followed by a step up to Winston Cup in either 2006 or 2007. If Toyota wants to run on NASCAR's Truck tour next season, the Japanese car maker will have to first submit a Truck body for NASCAR to OK by July 1 and then submit a 358 V-8 by Sept. 1. NASCAR will go to a "common template" Truck next season, according to NASCAR sources, which would make the job easier for both Toyota and NASCAR. "We're excited," George Pyne, NASCAR's senior vice president, said Wednesday. "I think Toyota is taking a long, hard look at NASCAR," Pyne said. "But I don't think any final decisions have been made. But I know they have been working diligently on looking at the Truck series. They've done a lot of due diligence in evaluating NASCAR as an opportunity. We have had a number of conversations with them, on the racing side and on the business side. Our competition department has had conversations with them about the engine and about the (body) fabrication and aerodynamics."(Winston Salem Journal)(1-23-2003)
UPDATE: NASCAR executives are interested in getting Toyota into the sport, and they have had a number of talks over the past few years. The discussions intensified last spring, with NASCAR hoping that Toyota might have a truck ready for this year's SpeedWeeks. Now Toyota's time frame appears to be for a 2004 Truck debut, followed by a step up to Winston Cup in either 2006 or 2007. If Toyota wants to run on NASCAR's Truck tour next season, the Japanese car maker will have to first submit a Truck body for NASCAR to OK by July 1 and then submit a 358 V-8 by Sept. 1. NASCAR will go to a "common template" Truck next season, according to NASCAR sources, which would make the job easier for both Toyota and NASCAR. "We're excited," George Pyne, NASCAR's senior vice president, said Wednesday. "I think Toyota is taking a long, hard look at NASCAR," Pyne said. "But I don't think any final decisions have been made. But I know they have been working diligently on looking at the Truck series. They've done a lot of due diligence in evaluating NASCAR as an opportunity. We have had a number of conversations with them, on the racing side and on the business side. Our competition department has had conversations with them about the engine and about the (body) fabrication and aerodynamics."(Winston Salem Journal)(1-23-2003)
