Toyota to leave Nationwide and Truck Series

UPDATE Word in the Infineon Raceway garage over the week was that Toyota has decided to follow its three corporate rivals and pull all but engineering and technical support and parts supplies from the two NASCAR tours. Lee White, head of Toyota' racing development operations: "Toyota and TRD have been in the process for over a year, of adapting our series support for the Truck/Nationwide programs to be appropriate to the value of each series. Our process in the future will not be determined by other manufacturer's actions but by the value delivered by each series. At this point there is no plan to change our involvement for the remainder of this season. As always we will re evaluate each series over the winter and could make appropriate adjustments." MikeMulhern.net

06/22/09 Toyota appears ready to withdraw its financial support of NASCAR Truck and Nationwide teams, though continuing engineering support, in the wake of General Motors' decision to join Ford and Chrysler in withdrawing all but engineering support for those two NASCAR tours. There has been no specific comment on that yet from Toyota executives. MikeMulhern.net