Toyota has a new Camry, but teams plan similar strategy in Daytona 500

Toyota has a new Camry, but teams plan similar strategy in Daytona 500

February 25, 2017

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A new, sleek Camry race car isn’t likely to change the Toyota teams’ approach to the Daytona 500.

Neither is the success Fords had in breaking up the Toyota monopoly in last Saturday’s Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona.

Last year, Camry drivers dominated the Great American Race, with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin edging Furniture Row’s Martin Truex Jr. for the win by .010 seconds, roughly six inches. Toyotas swept all three podium positions and put four cars in the top five.

But in the Clash, the Fords were able to side-draft the Toyotas and break apart a four-car chain. With help from Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano won the day in a Ford. But that won’t prevent the Toyotas from trying a similar tactic in Sunday’s Daytona 500.

“When you get going restrictor-plate racing, in particular here at Daytona, you're never sure what's going to happen,” said team owner Joe Gibbs during a press conference that included Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser and Ed Laukes, vice president of marketing, performance and guest experience, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. “I can't tell you how many times going into the last lap, and I thought it was going to happen last year, we were in pretty good position, but it was real close.

“If Matt (Kenseth) had not been able to hang on to that car, it was going to be a wreck in front of the field. So rarely does it wind up going the way you want it to go, but last year it worked out great. I think the game plan for us this year would be similar. We'd love to have a chance to get together. We think with the fact that Barney has got his two cars, and we could get our four somehow to help each other, I think it would be great.”

Instead of five cars in its factory-backed camp, Toyota now has sis with the addition of Erik Jones to the Furniture Row roster. The expansion from one car to two required a substantial addition of personnel for the Denver, Colo.-based organization.

“For me, it's pretty much the same,” Visser said. “I mean, it's the same shop. It's quite a few more people in the shop. (General manager) Joe Garone's life has gotten a whole lot busier, and it pretty much falls on him, but my life is pretty much as it was. The races are just going to be twice as exciting here.”

Both JGR and Furniture Row have been instrumental in the refinement of the new Camry race car. Though it was introduced in concert with the race car at the North American Auto Show in Detroit in January, the production version of the Camry won’t be available in showrooms until September.

“There was never a better opportunity to get it out, get it out to Daytona and actually get it onto the racetrack early,” Laukes said of the January unveiling. “So we're really excited about having it out there. I think if you see the styling of it, you see how aggressive it is.

“It's probably the most aggressive styled Camry that we've ever had. The engineering crew is really doing a great job of taking the similarities of the styling cues from the production vehicle, keeping it on the race car, so we're pretty happy about it.”