Toyota has won two races heading into Sunday’s race at Michigan, which is five fewer than what it had won at this point a year ago.
The Toyotas were the cars to beat when the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series stormed into Michigan for the June race a year ago.
Toyota had already won seven races heading into the Michigan International Speedway’s FireKeepers 400 in 2016. A year later, Toyotas enter Sunday’s race with two victories, both from Furniture Row Racing standout Martin Truex Jr. in his No. 78 Camry.
But David Wilson, the president of Toyota Racing Development, said he is confident the Toyota team is headed in the right direction. Toyota unveiled its new 2018 Camry back in January in the International Auto Show in Detroit, and a month later, the new Toyota race car hit the track at Daytona. The new body has only been competing for four months, and Wilson said he likes what he has seen, explaining that the wins will come.
« We haven’t won as many races as we are accustomed to but we have led a lot of laps. We have led more laps than Ford or Chevy and have won more stages, » Wilson said. « We just haven’t closed like we have needed to. We have had some bizarre things happens with late-race cautions. Last week (at Pocono) , Kyle Busch led 100 of 160 laps and he got caught up in some strategy at the end of the race and it didn’t translate to a victory.
« We have a lot of speed. We have sat on the last two poles. We qualified 1-4 at Dover and 1-3 at Pocono. Usually, when that happens, the wins start falling. We are really happy with the introduction of the new body which ultimately is where the character of this ’18 Camry is demonstrated. It has proven to be quite fast. It would be great to put a W on the board at Michigan. »
The green flag will drop on Sunday’s race at 3 p.m. Toyota will start four drivers in the top nine, including Truex, who will start second alongside polesitter Kyle Larson.
Toyotas have won five times at Michigan dating back to 2009, with its most recent win coming with Matt Kenseth in the August Pure Michigan 400 in 2015. It is Toyota’s lone win in the past 10 races at the MIS two-mile superspeedway.
« It’s the backyard of a lot of our automotive culture, » Wilson said. « Of course, it’s known for its domestics, but Toyota also has a significant presence here. We have a big engineering operation not too far from where we race. We have a lot of great memories here. It’s where Toyota won its first national NASCAR race back in 2004 with our Tundra. We always enjoy coming here. »
A win Sunday also would enable Toyota to drive off with the Heritage Trophy, which was created by former track president Roger Curtis and is awarded to the winning manufacturer. MIS is the only track on the NASCAR circuit that offers a trophy to the winning manufacturer.
« When we won (in 2015) , we took it from there and shipped it to California where it sat in our corporate headquarters lobby for a little bit, » Wilson said. « It was then sent out to TRD and sat in our lobby for a little bit. And then we shipped it to Detroit for the International Auto Show in January and we displayed it proudly in our booth. It’s a fun little tradition that Roger Curtis started a few years ago. »
