NASCAR: Is it time for concern in the Toyota camp?
Last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. was the only Toyota driver to lead a lap and even run up front. Is there any reason to worry about Toyota as the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season moves forward?
After winning the 62nd annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, Toyota had been looking to keep up their hot start to the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube last weekend.
This did not transpire, as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. was the only Toyota driver to compete up front and lead a lap, and he did it after starting from the pole position. He was only awarded that pole position by the NASCAR rulebook and a penalty to teammate Kyle Busch after qualifying was washed out due to rain.
No driver in the Toyota camp was able to finish in the top 10, with Busch being the highest finisher in 15th place. Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing finished in 17th, Truex finished in 20th Erik Jones rounded out the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet in 23rd.
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Gaunt Brothers Racing’s Daniel Suarez finished in 30th place and rookie Christopher Bell of the Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated Leavine Family Racing finished in 33rd.
The struggles for Toyota started at the beginning of the weekend when Busch, Hamlin and Bell all received L1 penalties the day before the race after the noses of their cars did not meet specifications. Those penalties forced those three drivers to start at the rear of the field. Along with starting at the rear of the field, all three drivers and teams received 10-point penalties.
In practice, outside of Truex, the Toyotas lacked speed across the board. They were not fast in single-lap runs, five-lap runs, or 10-lap runs. It was a weekend doomed from the start for the Toyota’s.
With a total of one (out of 267) lap led in the Pennzoil 400, fans may be concerned with the Toyotas after the first race on a 1.5-mile track of the season. Last year, the Toyotas won six of the 11 races at these tracks, yet they were practically non-existent there a week ago.
But this is nothing to be concerned about. It was an uncharacteristic run out of the Toyotas last week, but Las Vegas Motor Speedway is not a great track for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota. Before last September when Truex won, the team had not won at the track since 2013 with Matt Kenseth.
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This afternoon, the NASCAR Cup Series is at Auto Club Speedway, where the Toyotas have had a lot of recent success. Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota have won four of the last seven races at the track. Kyle Busch won there in 2013, 2014 and 2019 while Martin Truex Jr. won there in 2018.
They should be back up to speed and competing up front today, but if they struggle to find speed, it may be time to worry. The highest qualified Toyota driver for the Auto Club 400 is Busch, all the way back in 17th place.