A Bit of Toyota Speculation: Toyota executives may handle all driver contracts at the corporate level, instead of leaving it up to individual team owners. And Toyota has considerable cash in the bank for whatever it might want to do, because the company is the most profitable of the automakers at the moment. Might Toyota come in and spend whatever it takes to get whichever driver it wants? Executives at Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler may have to ante up themselves to keep prized drivers in the fold. Toyota appears to be cranking up things for a 2006 Busch effort, with a Nextel Cup project planned for 2007 - and it may need some drivers. And not just one or two, because NASCAR is expected to insist that Toyota back at least six teams when it steps up. Toyota is spending $98 million on its Indy Racing League program, and that money, maybe more, is expected to be moved to the NASCAR account soon.(Winston Salen Journal)(4-26-2005)
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You can bet Toyota will go first class when the time comes to step up in Nextel Cup. They certainly have upped the ante in the Craftsman Truck Series. I have seen printed rumors that Toyota will pull out of the IRL as early as the end of this year.
98 million on the IRL...thats nothing! Toyota currenly expends the largest budget in Formula 1 at something around 400 million US$!
What was Toyotas Bottom line last year...somewhere in the Billions and yes they are taking a shot at knocking GM off as #1 worldwide car maker.
Toyota and NASCAR NEWS!!!!!!
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