[Bob Tanner]

Something which I think should be factored in here is the fact that yesterday Toyota announced that it was ending its presence in F1. So, Toyota is joining BMW and Honda in leaving the biggest motor sports series in the world. (That's not a slam at NA__AR, it's just a fact) The announced investment in F1 for Toyota was $300 million and upwards.
Now, will Toyota's leaving F1 mean that (a) they are going to put a good part of that $300 million into their NA__AR efforts? (Possible, I guess, but not likely. Without brand identification and using components similar to what they use in production cars, what's the up side?) Or is it that (b) Toyota is going to scale back their motor sports involvement across the board? (I see this as the most likely scenario)

Time will tell but these are interesting times we live in.

[loco4pablo]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

Something which I think should be factored in here is the fact that yesterday Toyota announced that it was ending its presence in F1. So, Toyota is joining BMW and Honda in leaving the biggest motor sports series in the world. (That's not a slam at NA__AR, it's just a fact) The announced investment in F1 for Toyota was $300 million and upwards.
Now, will Toyota's leaving F1 mean that (a) they are going to put a good part of that $300 million into their NA__AR efforts? (Possible, I guess, but not likely. Without brand identification and using components similar to what they use in production cars, what's the up side?) Or is it that (b) Toyota is going to scale back their motor sports involvement across the board? (I see this as the most likely scenario)

Time will tell but these are interesting times we live in.

I agree with the later of your question... I'm sure they will be cutting back on all series of racing..It's tuff out there everyone and every series

[bob101]

Yeah I heard Toyota pulled out of F1. They were spending around $450million/year from what I heard.

You can run a whole lot of cup teams for that. Today Toyota announced their first profit in 3 quarters.

Having said that....how many "low level" teams will Toyota hang onto. Since Toyota has entered NASCAR have they turned anyone down? Everyone that had a 1 car shop turned up in a Toyota...especially after Bill Davis went under and picked up stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Obviously JGR is Toyota's flagship in cup. Would you rank Earnhart Ganassi overall higher than MWR? MWR isn'g great but they have 2 drivers right now hovering around the top 15 and are adding a 3rd driver next year that could possibly do it. EG has a driver in the chase...but doesn't even have a named driver as of yet for the #1 car and it's widely said that it's not a top posistion....

Only time will tell.

[nascaraddict]

Let me re-phrase that. If it did happen. Dale Sr. will be spinning in his grave.

[jks812]

Originally Posted by nascaraddict

Let me re-phrase that. If it did happen. Dale Sr. will be spinning in his grave.

Who knows. If Toyota makes a better deal than Chevy and offers more, he might be smiling and saying thats right do what's gonna get you the most and give you the chance to be a better race team.

[Robertdjr]

Originally Posted by nascaraddict

Let me re-phrase that. If it did happen. Dale Sr. will be spinning in his grave.

I'd think if he was gonna do any spinning, it would have been when DEI became EGR. That would probably do it more than anything else that's happened.

[Stewart Fan]

Originally Posted by nascaraddict

Let me re-phrase that. If it did happen. Dale Sr. will be spinning in his grave.

Dale was all about winning. He didn't care if it was a Chevy, ford, dodge or now a Toyota. All he cared about was getting to the finish line first and he would have drove a prius if it was fast.