With Dave Blaney's sixth-place finish and an eighth-place effort from Brian Vickers, Toyota placed two cars in the top 10 Tuesday in the rain-delayed Michigan race -- in the shadow of Motown, no less.
The Toyota engines have been refined along the way all season, and are starting to show progress. So much so that Dave Blaney is No. 12 in this week's Power Rankings.
What do you think? Has Toyota raised its game? Can a driver of a Camry compete with the big boys? Will we see a Toyota driver win a race this season? If not this season, ever?
Toyota is comin'. Considering the mountain they had to climb this year with having to build new "old" cars and COT's plus a new motor, yet unlike Dodge when they re-entered Cup racing with a larger cylinder bore and other "help" from NASCAR, Toyota and their teams are doing it on a level playing field. If Chevy, Ford , or Dodge came out of the box this horribly, their teams and drivers would have been lined up at the NASCAR trailer demanding spoiler and motor rules help from NASCAR. Toyota teams just keep working to get better, and just as I figured, we are seeing the fruits of their labor on their second visit to each racetrack.
Dave Blaney is the perfect driver for Toyota. He just goes about his business of getting the car qualified each week on speed until recently breaking into the top 25. He gets little fanfare from the media as Red Bull and MWR have somehow been determined to be the flagship teams for Toyota while Blaney consistently qualifies and runs the best during the race. I think Toyota knows who they like if you notice all their commercials seem to show the 22 car.
By the comments of the other Cup drivers, they know with any fortune at all, Blaney is definetely a contender for a victory, even this year.
By next season, you will see Toyota in victory lane and more than once.
Then the Roush's of NASCAR will be lining up at the trailers once again....
BC
agree totally with " imidd44 "- also i believe that toyota is the testing car for even more " foreign " car entries...now,how about foreign drivers - is this a future step, also ?
