Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery from Kobalt Tools 500

When the clocks ticked over to 2008, Toyota Motorsports VP Jim Aust declared that the Camry would not go winless this season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup like it did during its inaugural season last year. Things got off to a good start during qualifying for the Daytona 500 when Toyota went 1-2 in the second Gatorade Duel qualifying race. This past weekend, history repeated itself when Joe Gibbs Racing had a pair of Camry cars go 1-2 again, but this time on race day at the Kobalt Tools 500. Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Camry won last weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway with teammate Tony Stewart taking silver, both driving Cup cars festooned with Camry stickers. Not only did Kyle Busch win the race, but he remains atop the points standing after previous points leader Carl Edwards got penalized for something to do with his oil tank lid at last week's race in Las Vegas. Many of the drivers also complained after the race about their tires that were supplied by Goodyear, with Tony Stewart, always ready to give a good quote, saying, "If I were Goodyear, I'd be really embarrassed about this weekend and what they brought us here." Nevertheless, he and teammate Busch pulled out the win for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota. Looks like it's gonna be a good year for the imports in NASCAR.


[Source: MSN.foxsports.com, Photos by John Harrelson, Chris McGrath, Chris Gaythen, Chris Trotman/Getty]]

Regardless of whether or not you're a NASCAR fan, there's no denying that the motorsport is starting off its 2008 season in the best possible way. Early festivities for the season opener Daytona 500 began this past weekend and resulted in Jimmie Johnson, last season's champion, taking the pole position. Next to him on the grid will be a somewhat redeemed Michael Waltrip, who was embroiled in a scandal at last year's Daytona 500 that resulted in the largest ever fine handed down from NASCAR at the time.

That would probably be enough for a great kick off to the season, but the newly minted NASCAR Sprint Cup is swimming in merchandise sales after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Bud Shootout on Saturday in his first race as a member of Hendrick Motorsports. Driving his new No. 88 Chevy, Earnhardt Jr. came out swinging in this exhibition that nets no points for the winner, but is a good omen for winning the 500 next weekend.

[Source: ESPN, Photo by John Harrelson/Getty]

For the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Dodge has announced that it will replace the "Avenger" stickers on its Car of Tomorrow with the "Charger" stickers it had been using on its non-COT racers this past year. The announcement is loaded with flowery prose that name-drops Richard Petty and talks of the Charger nameplate's race heritage (the Intrepid era is conveniently overlooked). That, says Dodge, is why it was a natural decision to campaign the full-time COT as a "Charger." We think it's mostly because the "real car" version of the Avenger is lame. Seriously, we'd take an old Spirit R/T over a new Avenger R/T any day.

Thanks for the tip, John!

[Source: NASCAR]

Toyota has just raised its profile in NASCAR's top racing series. For the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup (née NEXTEL Cup) season, Joe Gibbs Racing will trade in its Chevrolets for Toyota Camrys (or at least cars with Toyota Camry headlight and grille stickers decorating their noses). In terms of star power, it means that Toyota picks up some very big names in Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin. Stewart showed how receptive he was to the change by announcing plans to sign a contract extension with JGR that keeps him on the NFL coaching legend's race team through the '09 season.

In a piece he wrote for FOXSports.com, Darryl Waltrip (whose brother Michael's team also runs Toyotas) said that the deal is a boon for both Toyota and JGR, because the adoption of the Car of Tomorrow for the full season next year basically levels the playing field where the cars themselves are concerned. The engines will be the difference-makers on the technical front. Waltrip feels that Gibbs' excellent engineering team will work wonders with the Toyota race engine, and that the JGR Camrys should be competitive right away. We'll see how right or wrong he is on Sunday, February 17, 2008, when the green flag waves at Daytona.

Follow the jump for press releases from Toyota and JGR.

Thanks for the tip, Saimin.

[Sources: Toyota Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NYT Wheels Blog, FOX Sports]