LEBANON, Tenn. - In a technical bulletin issued this week, NASCAR has ordered Toyota Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series teams to use a different intake manifold in an effort to “level the playing field” with other manufacturers.
The change does not affect the Nextel Cup Series.
Busch Series Director Joe Balash said NASCAR informed the teams of the switch during the test at Richmond International Raceway last week. The sanctioning body has been working with Toyota officials “for a while” as NASCAR conducted chassis dynamometer tests this season.
The manifold was declared legal before the season, but tests have shown it gives Toyota teams a horsepower advantage. The new intake reduces horsepower, Balash said.
“We looked at all the manifolds on all the cars,” Balash said. “We looked at that particular manifold as something we can make a change with to keep our engine box as we talk about in check.
“It does reduce the horsepower a little bit in the engine and bring it more within where we are with the other engines in the series.”
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whats so good about the old intake manifold? does it come pre-coated with rocket fuel before every race?
Most people don’t have a clue about Toyota’s “American Racing program”. I do! I work for them. We are red blooded Americans who learn the old fashioned way, by our mistakes! We machine, build and dyno our engines right here in Southern California. I was born and raised here in So. Ca. as were most of my co-workers. I am tired of all the badmouthing. TRD is made up of hard working people with many years of experience that take pride in what we do and one of the things we do is learn! We learn everyday. I don’t care how long anyone has been doing something you can still improve. If these people who continually badmouth Toyota would have spent even a small amount of time at our facility they would not be talking smack! We have blown up engines and thrown countless parts against the dyno walls in the past, but we learn from those mistakes and keep going. We have lost our fair share of races but we don’t give up. Maybe that is what Roush is so afraid of? We are as American as anyone else in this series and people who don’t know shouldn’t open their mouths.
I think that they should ban Toyota all together just look at what Honda has done to the Indy seires it use to be dominated by American cars until they let honda in and it turned into the Honda racing leauge when they let Honda enter there 4 cylinders and made Cheyv downsize motors Toyota is Bad for NASCAR
Well, you maybe Americans nobody said you weren’t Toyota didnt desing the motors her in American they took them back to Japan and made a motor using GM, FORD, AND DODGE PARTSnot creating a motor from scratch like GM, FORD, DODGE had to back in the days of runnning moonshine. Toyota has got the best out off all the enigines like the GM short trow and other things that they did not design. Toyota needs to go back to Asia ans work there get out of the American racing, does anyone remember what happened to the Indy Leausge well if you dont Honda came in and everyone changed to fit there needs just like will happen to NASCAR, the last real American sport. Is Toyota actually desinging anything that GM, FORD, OR DODGE hasnt already made i dont think so.
Hey Josh use your spell checker. You sound like a moonshiner. Wake up man. This country sold out along time ago. Corporate America does business everywhere but America. I drive a Chevy truck but it’s just about worn out and I have one more year of payments. Where was your computer made? Look at the shoes your wearing, where were they made? I don’t like it but this country has sold out and that’s the way it is. Don’t talk out your as_. Toyota shares it’s technology with GM and Ford. As far as designing the nascar motors. Your full of it! I work at TRD. I know! We did it in Costa Mesa, Ca. and we are still doing it there. The next time your in the area stop in and take a look.
Haha I agree with anonymous!
The foundation of American free enterprise was to ley all products in the market and the best ones would suceed and the lousy ones would not. So to limit Nascar to only so-called American companies is wrong. Only about 50 % of an “American” car is made in the United States. If a Ford truck is built in Canada and a GM car in Mexico and a Toyota or Honda in Indianna or Ohio , which one is now the American car? They are all world cars today , so dont be stupid thinking just because the label is an American brand , that it is anymore American than the car with the Japanese brand. You; be amazed how many so called American products , clothes , tv’s , shoes and most electronics are made overseas. But , thats free enterprise. And Anonymous…to answer your first question. No , only Mikeys has rocket fuel in the intake…lol.
Josh you are wrong on so many levels it is not funny (a little funny but mostly sad). I will address your mistakes one by one.
Honda Toyota and Chevrolet all ran IRL with V8s. Chevrolet used and engine design that was bad and dated. Hondas move in IRL was Just like Cosworths move with cart now champ car, an effort to lower costs and make fields competitive (not to say that i agree with one engine manufacture)
As for design Ford, and Dodge use modified Chevy 350 designs that date back to the 70’s. NASCAR won’t let dodge use the hemi, no one uses a “stock” consumer engine like at the time of nascars founding. It’s not like Toyota is running that well right now anyway.
Josh you should also note Dodge is owned by the Germans and it will soon sell to some other foreign interest.
yeah, them Germans, they make some great knives, but they couldnt make an american car, so they bought dodge, and found out that they were lossing their asses so now their selling it. I say GM and Ford need to buy dodge, split it down the middle and move it into producing quality vehicles, not the mentally retarded shit they sell now. but they do have that good commercial with the “Smoke on the Water” guitar intro.
I should also note Toyota, Chevrolet (after olds folded), and Honda ran IRL at the same time for 2 or 3 years. GM was talking with Dodge but that fell through.
I’ve raced just about everything on two or four wheels since 1961. karts, midgets, modifieds, NHRA A/Fuel dragsters, AMA roadrace bikes, SCCA sports cars - you name it.
What NASCAR does now is not “Stock car” racing. It’s racing hand made race cars with hand made engines and bodies that team just “personalize” with slightly different noses and decals. Even at that, NASCAR has to approve the noses and motors and heaven forbid if anyone comes up with a better one! NASCAR will be on them like white on rice to squash them back in line.
Instead of allowing the innovationa and advancement and letting others catch up, they penalize the advancement and force them “equal” again. Just witness NASCAR’s forcing Toyota to redo their manifolds because their cars were fast. When you crush the incentive to improve legally, you encourage people to bend the rules past breaking and try to work around the rules.
All NASCAR does now is ensure the equal distribution of mediocrity. Every car as the same as possible. Then Cup and BUSCH cars will be as exciting popular as IROC and Legends cars.
Once all the cars REALLY are the same, it won’t matter if the decal says Ford, or Chevy or Toyota, or BMW, or AUDI, or Ferrari. Because the decals WILL BE the only difference. And, by the way, NASCAR even regulates what decals go on the cars and even where they go already - so they’ve got BMW & AUDI & Ferrari covered!
what ever happened to the good old days…(the sixties) with Nascar?
but life goes on, I think Toyota is as welcome in Nascar as any other manufacture. Most of the complants seem to be that they are not AMERICAN…. seems to me they manufacture alot of cars and trucks right there in the USA… I guess some think of NASCAR as a “Good Old Boys Club”…. well, I do not remember the USA backing down from any challenge before, so I think the BIG 3 will do okay, as will Toyota
as a second thought, it isn’t TOYOTA destroying NASCAR, it just might be NASCAR destroying NASCAR with all the rules that seem to put a stop to good old “make it better and faster” idea that racing teams use to do
If you think that an American company is unable to make a engine with an unbelievable amount of horsepower. The whole ruckus is that Ford, GM, and Dodge have restrictions on their engines: compression ratio, heads, intake manifolds, etc. If they are all suppose to be equal, how come there is a HP advantage. Any American team can swap a intake or crank in their engines and equal and surpass any rice engine. Toyota throws so much money around at Nascar that the officials just turn their heads. Oh yeah, by the way, the Toyota engine is based off of 60 years of AMERICAN built blocks and castings as they admitted to it; they are too uneducated in HP to build something from scratch. So you morons who think that Toyota is so much superior to the American car makers, go home and start up your Corolla in your garage and take a sleep. Remember, over 60 years ago they bombed Pearl Harbor and our American car manufacturers had the patriotism to build tanks to help the war; now liberalistic hippies turn their backs on them and welcome foreign influence with open arms.
Toyota Oh yeah, the same people that herded American GI’s into bunkers and then added gas and burned them alive. The people who experimented on US prisoners. Who helped build the equipment used to sneak attack Pearl Harbor. They belive that they did not lose WWII but are still fighting it on an economic and psycological front. AND THEY ARE WINNING..
If we try to send and American car into Japan, they have to take it apart, check everything then tell us what to change, put it back together and add about 200 percent to the cost. We should do the same. But NO thier our FRIENDS!!!!!! BULL Keep working for them, they love looking down on you.
anonymous is full of crap ,you don’t even have the guts to use your own name. by the way all the profit goes right back to Japan. toyota should have to race the four cylinder camery, ha
Personally i think NASCAR is going downhill, the COT at least as far as im concerned is a major screwup. Id like to see the manufacturers get more involved again by letting them run STOCK bodied cars, and then well see some true racing. Then well see which manufacturer wants to put some effort back into the sport, its hard to blame GM,Ford, or Dodge for scaling back as the cots look absolutely nothing like a car they manufacture. Honestly i cant see much difference between this and IROC. And we all know what happened there.
Ok Ok Ok…lets just face it Toyota dominates the Craftsman Truck Series..They Have Dominated so far this year in the Nextel Cup Series..So you can stick ford, chevy and dodge right up ur asses..your just jealous
Toyota didn’t develop that engine without copying the American engines. What does Japan do without copying? Hmmmmm.. Not much. Sushi and sea urchin balls is about it.
I do not think that it is about what manufacturers did 20 years ago or about “corporate merging…” Bottom line… Kyle busch is far from a dominating driver, just look at his accomplishments last year with hendrick….. kinda shameful and childish. All of a sudden, he is dominating and noone can keep up with toyota cars towards the end of the race. I do not put it on toyota saying that they are doing something wrong… I just think that their is an unfair advantage…. within the limits of nascar’s horsepower “percentage” difference, but none the less unfair. Dont respond to this post with arguments about GM, ford, Dodge etc etc etc. I just think that you all dug way too deep into what the man said above about toyota staying out of Nascar. I drive toyota’s myself, I personally enjoyed Nascar when it was ONLY Ford, Chevy and Dodge. The competitiveness just seemed more extreme.
The most disappointed I have been with Nascar is when they introduce the COT. Next in line was the introduction of Toyota. There is plenty of word throwing going on and all views are valid. We need to be honesty about the Toyota’s motor, there’s not
a company the size of Toyota that would not use all available V8 motors at there disposal in helping design a new motor. This would be very foolish to think this wouldn’t happen. What to you think the big three are do with the V8 from Toyota, there are looking it over very close. Timing is everything, Chevy’s new RO7 has been out for a while and Dodges new motor came out late last year. They will all be on the same page before you know it. The most important thing to keep in mind is the COT, if there is a great horse power advantage, the difference will be more evident with this new car. Just for all you, what did they take away from Kyle Bush at the end of the year???? This was too great of a team to finish out the chase looking as bad as he did. If he would have won the championship there would have be so much turmoil, Nascar could not have handled it. But what was it that Toyota did want us to see??