Michael Waltrip has had a terrible year both on and off the track. His team seems to be in total disarray and he’s missed a lot of races. I knew that disorganization within a racing team could make it hard to compete for wins, but as I watched more races and the performance of the other Toyota teams on the track, it became clear that whatever else is wrong, the Toyota teams are sadly lacking in engine power. Two exceptions to this being Dave Blaney and David Reutimann, who have somehow managed to get into the races and do okay. They must be fantastic drivers, imagine giving them some real power under the hood!
But Toyota is a great automotive company right? With great engineers and experience, right? Well yeah, but not the kind of engineering needed to do well in Nextel Cup. In his column, “Oh, what a feeling?“, Bob Margolis lays much of the blame at the feet of Toyota Racing Division. I would have thought that the Craftsman Truck series would have prepped Toyota somewhat for the Cup, but if it is true that coming from open wheel racing, they look down on NASCAR, then maybe their hearts just aren’t in it. It’s funny though, because it’s true that they probably could have stayed out of NASCAR and continued to sell a lot of Camrys. But to pull out of the testosterone soaked world that is NASCAR in utter defeat now could actually cost them some sales. Afterall, even the most liberal man probably wouldn’t want to buy a car made by a bunch of pussies who got their asses handed to them week after week in front of millions of viewers. That’d be hard to live down, so they’d better get their asses in gear!