| Subject: backstretch |
Author:
Rick
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Date Posted: Sunday, January 20, 02:35:56pm
It’s quite obvious that bringing Joe Gibbs Racing into the Toyota camp was the smartest thing the Japanese auto maker could have done. Will it be enough to win them a championship in 2008? I seriously doubt it, although there are some writers who clearly think it will happen.
The Toyotas, led by Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart especially, seem very strong in pre-season testing. JGR has done a whole lot more in the last four or five months than former flagship team Michael Waltrip Racing did in almost two years. Its patently obvious that Waltrip was way over his head and that he promised a whole lot more than he could ever hope to deliver. It reminds me of that scene from the movie Top Gun where the commander says to Maverick, “Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.” No one ever accused Michael Waltrip of not having an ego but this time it caught up to him and bit him where the sun don’t shine. Despite assertions by Toyota that they were sticking with Waltrip, it was clear to everyone with a heartbeat that something needed to be done to stop the hemorrhaging at the track. In stepped JD Gibbs and look at what we’re seeing now.
When you take all of the test sessions into account, the fastest single laps by all of the drivers are very telling. Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his Chevy recorded the fastest lap at 185.820 on Day 5. But the next five fastest times are all Toyotas, with Blaney and Waltrip being second and third. But what’s really important here is this fact: out of the top twenty fastest laps, Toyotas own 11. Chevy has four, Ford has three and Dodge has two.
In drafting things even out a little more but the Toyotas are still right on the money, with six cars in the top twenty.
What does this mean? Well to me it means that Toyota has 11 cars in the top 20 on single lap speed and six cars in the top 20 in drafting speed. That’s really about all it means. I don’t think this means a whole lot because it’s testing and not racing. Testing is what it is.
Will Stewart, Hamlin and Busch be threats? Of course they will. Brian Vickers almost won a race or two last year and his car pretty much sucked for the most part. One thing you can be absolutely sure of: the cars coming out of Joe Gibbs Racing won’t suck. I don’t think they will set the world on fire. I don’t think they will be good enough to make Tony Stewart happy. I don’t think they will win the championship. I’m not even sure they will win a race this year. But they most certainly won’t suck.
That said it’s obvious the Toyotas have done some homework in the off-season. The sad part is they shouldn’t have had too. A year ago I wrote in this column and elsewhere that it seemed to me that Toyota was somehow convinced that they were ready for Cup about a year before they actually were. That, in hindsight, seems to be about right. If this was the first time Toyota did a pre-season test at Daytona, then Jack Roush could say he was absolutely right to say we should all be worried about Toyota. That makes me wonder just how long some teams will, or even should, keep their factory support.
There have to be people at TRD scratching their heads and saying, ‘what were we thinking?’ But it’s not really their fault: a good salesman could sell a glass of water to a drowning man and we all know there are some really good salesmen in NASCAR. If Toyota has really learned from this, than I would say two or three Camry’s could be considered legitimate threats this year. Are they going to set the world on fire? I don’t think so.
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