Toyota Wins 100th NASCAR Truck Series Race – 7 Straight at Daytona
Tim Esterdahl | Feb 26, 2013 | Comments 4
On Friday, February 22, 2013, Toyota, as a manufacturer, won its 100th NASCAR Truck Series Race. The win by Johnny Sauter was also the 7th win in a row at Daytona. Not bad for Toyota which started racing trucks in 2004.
This Toyota driven by Johnny Sauter wins the NASCAR Truck Series Daytona 250. The win is the 100th for Toyota and is 7 in a row at Daytona.
The 250-lap Daytona race marks the beginning of the truck series. Toyota had a great start going 1-2 with Johnny Sauter winning the race and Kyle Busch coming in second. The race had an action filled finish thanks to a blown tire that caused a wreck that took out another Toyota driven by Timothy Peters. Even with the wreck, tt was a great showing for Toyota.
As we said in a previous article:
The trucks that see track time for Toyota in NASCAR bear only a very small resemblance to the Tundra parked in your driveway. While the basic bodywork might look similar, it is really a Tundra shell that has been made out of fiberglass and mounted on a tubular steel frame. Significant aerodynamic work has been done to the vehicle, such as filling in the truck bed, adding a rear wing and designing a front air splitter. These last two items are critical to generating the down force necessary to keep the truck under control at high speeds.
NASCAR-spec Tundras are powered by a specially built 5.9 liter V8 engine that conforms to the rules and regulations of the series. Each manufacturer races very similar engine designs, and so it is up to the race engineers at Toyota to discover how to tweak the most power they can while remaining with the narrow boundaries of the rules. This ingenuity eventually trickles down to the street Tundra, and many TRD parts are first tested in the ‘trial by fire’ environment of the racetrack. You might surprised to find out that the engines in these trucks are actually lower-tech than the ones found in your local Toyota showroom – there are no overhead camshafts to be found in NASCAR. The challenge is to strengthen the inner workings of the race engines, which are subject to incredible stress, as they must produce maximum horsepower at full throttle for almost the entire duration of each event.
Remarkably, Chevy has never won a Truck Series race at Daytona. Just saying!
Go Toyota!
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Filed Under: Auto News
Great for Toyota Tundra to win Daytona. Not so well with the cars. Having 3 late in the race who were in the top 5 lose an engine. Still had Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, and even good ole Michael Waltrip still going.
Mickey,
I watched Daytona as well and thought what is up with Toyota when cars were blowing engines left and right. They were 1-2 for a bit and then all had engine problems. I’m sure they will get that fixed.
-Tim
Not a big deal. I do like to see some Toyota wins but I do follow Jimmie Johnson. Since 2002. In 2001 when Earnhardt passed away I wondered who to go with. I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon with Junior or with hot heads Kevin Harvick or Tony Stewart. At the end of 2001 I decided to go with Jimmie Johnson because he was quiet. He was new and I didn’t want to change like I would have if I went with Mark Martin. Although my wife is a big fan of Michael Waltrip. He actually gave her a leather jacket from Country Time some years ago. She hasn’t pick one out of his stable yet. He’s definitely comical. Even in person he’s no different but taller than you may think.
I’ve loosely followed NASCAR for years. Now, I have two young sons who like to watch the cars “zoom around the track.” I have watched the Daytona 500 for two years now and what strikes me is how long the race is. I mean, the 250 truck race is about 1 1/2-2 hours. The Daytona race is considerably longer. I can’t even begin to imagine how tired those drivers are at the end of the race with the strain. Wow!
-Tim