Toyota isn’t merely resting on an apology from Michael Waltrip Racing for circumventing the NASCAR rulebook. Company officials are expected to send a letter out to all Toyota teams next week stating Waltrip’s organization has used two of the company’s three strikes. The next team that crosses the line will face the loss of the [...]

Michael Waltrip’s statement regarding the NASCAR penalties handed down this evening to the #55 Michael Waltrip Racing entry: “In the past 12 months, Michael Waltrip Racing has hired more than 150 people and we currently employ more than 200. Although we have grown at an accelerated pace, it has been our mission to hire people [...]

Jim Aust, vice president of Toyota Racing Development, was asked if this was his worst nightmare.
“I would say that’s pretty close to accurate,” Aust said. “This is a week we had looked forward to for many years. To begin this way certainly takes some of the limelight and happiness out of it.”

Today, during Speedweeks in Daytona Beach, Fla., Roush Racing and Fenway Sports Group (FSG) announced the formation of Roush Fenway Racing. Under the agreement, FSG will purchase 50 percent of Roush Racing to form the new entity. Jack Roush will continue to manage the competitive operations of the race teams and Geoff Smith will continue [...]

NASCAR announced Wednesday that it has confiscated the primary car of the #55 Toyota team that competes in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series with driver Michael Waltrip, as a result of rule violations found during pre- and post-qualifying inspection for the Daytona 500.
Crew chief Larry (David) Hyder and the team’s vice president of competition Bobby [...]

Pos., No., Driver, Time, Speed, Lap #, # Laps, Fastest, Next
Practice 1:
1 17 Matt Kenseth 47.801 188.281 6 27
2 41 Reed Sorenson 47.837 188.139 2 21 -0.036 -0.036
3 25 Casey Mears 47.838 188.135 [...]

Team owner Jack Roush says he won’t appeal the suspension of crew chief Robbie Reiser, but calls the deduction of 50 points from Roush Racing’s No. 17 team “unprecedented.”
“What has been [NASCAR's] precedence, what has been their history?” Roush asked Wednesday during a press conference outside the team’s hauler in the garage area of Daytona [...]

David Hyder, the crew chief for Michael Waltrip, has been suspended indefinitely for infractions discovered on the #55 Toyota during Sunday’s post-qualifying inspection for the Daytona 500. Further penalties against Waltrip’s team will be announced at a press conference later on Wednesday. They are expected to be more severe than the two- and four-race suspensions [...]

Team owner Ray Evernham said he won’t appeal the four-race suspension to No. 9 team director Kenny Francis but is still mulling over whether to appeal the two-race suspensions of No. 19 team director Josh Browne and No. 10 team director Rodney Childers.
Francis, the crew chief for Kasey Kahne, had his car fail post-qualifying inspection [...]

Dale Earnhardt Jr., fends off a posse of post-apocalyptic mutant warriors in Budweiser’s newest ad titled “Apocalypse,” set to debut during Sunday’s Daytona 500 on Fox-TV.
Dale Jr.’s pursuers chase the red #8 Chevy across a barren desert landscape, flinging fire bombs and wielding chainsaws, in pursuit of the last Budweiser on Earth. Just when he [...]