Toyota teams sandbagging

Knowing all too well that the NASCAR community would never sit for an early domination in NASCAR's top Cup series, rumors are rampant that the Toyota teams are deliberately sandbagging for this very reason. They have to pay their dues so-to-speak.

Ford, Chevy and Dodge stock car engine builders may well have something to fear from Toyota this season, if Saturday's post-300 chassis dyno tests by NASCAR stand up at other tracks, too. The new Toyota restrictor-plate motor in runner-up Dave Blaney's car after the Busch 300 cranked out a whopping 456 horsepower, compared to the Chevy motor in winner Kevin Harvick's car, which pulled only 438. Giving up 18 horsepower at a restrictor plate track is considerable.

The men whose Busch cars were tested: Harvick, Blaney, Carl Edwards, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., David Reutimann, Mike Wallace and Steve Grissom. Toyota's new Busch and Cup motors are not based on the Truck engine design but are a new design.

Chevrolet too has a new engine this season, but it is not expected to debut until later in the season. In part from Winston Salem Journal