Success in NASCAR After Failure in F1: History of Toyota in Racing

The Japanese car manufacturing giant Toyota has its footprints across a wide array of motorsports. Throughout the decades Toyota Racing Development has pioneered winning cars that have seen a lot of success and multiple championship wins. But their entry into the world of NASCAR has been one of the most interesting tales in their history.

At the turn of the century, Toyota decided to get themselves in the American racing scene with a works Celica entry into the regional Goody’s Dash Series for the 2000s season. Later on, they moved into the Truck Series from the 2004 season. After that, it only took them three seasons until they tasted success in winning both the driver’s and the manufacturer’s championship. Between the 2006 and 2010 seasons, the Japanese team claimed five manufacturers titles as well.

Although they took some time to make their way into the nationwide series, they did eventually make the jump and there too they found success after winning the championship with Kyle Busch in 2015. Since then, the team has won two more championships with drivers Martin Truex Jr., and Busch (2nd time in 2019) in the Cup Series as well. TRD continues to exist as a manufacturer in all three of NASCAR’s premier series with several teams in partnership with them.

Toyota’s ultimate failure in their Formula 1 foray

While Toyota’s NASCAR entry was wildly successful for the manufacturer their entry into the pinnacle of open-wheel autosports wasn’t as fruitful as they would have hoped for. Toyota entered Formula 1 for the 2002 season with a team built from the ground up. In their first race that season at the Australian Grand Prix, Mika Salo finished in the 6th place, earning some points for the team.

Moving into future seasons the team struggled a lot with inconsistencies and a rare occurrence of competitive strength. The times the car was any good, it would end up losing the will to live mid-race and cause several DNFs due to reliability and failures. Throughout their existence in Formula 1, the team was only able to achieve a handful of second-place podiums, but a win continued to elude them.

Ultimately, Toyota decided to pull the plug on its Formula 1 prospect in 2009 largely due to the massive costs it incurred and the effects of the recession hurting business. Intriguingly, the team used to have one of the biggest budgets on the grid, yet they were unable to produce a single win throughout the time they existed in the sport.