Toyota Seeks to Create Faster NASCAR Engines for its Drivers
During a recent race, NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin became clearly frustrated when his vehicle, developed by Toyota Racing Division, simply could not keep up with a Hendrick Motorsports car. This season, Hendrick had a leg up not just on Toyota, but also on several other NASCAR vehicle producers. So far, Toyota has only two victories this year, compared to nine last season. Toyota team owner Joe Gibbs stated that Toyota is adding new updates to its engines that may restore the team’s competitive edge. Part of the difficulty with designing NASCAR racing vehicles is ignorance about the technology of other manufacturers. While Toyota knows how fast its own cars are and can be, they do not know what range of horsepower other manufacturers have achieved. The Toyota Racing Division president estimates a 50-horsepower gap. NASCAR will soon release the 2015 rules package, thus allowing engineers to begin creating vehicles for next year. The organization recently completed a rules test at Michigan International Speedway and does not plan to undergo a second test before issuing the rules package.