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First Brickyard 400 Win Would Be Special For Toyota

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is and has been the pinnacle of motor racing for a century.

To win there, you’ll have beaten the best in the world at a venue well known to even the most casual racing fans.

For Toyota, winning at Indy would be a huge feather in its cap. Gil de Ferran won the Indianapolis 500 in 2003 using Toyota power, but a victory at Sunday’s 17th Brickyard 400 would be the company’s first at the Speedway with a stock car.

“Indy is special,” says Lee White, the president and general manager for Toyota Racing Development, U.S.A. “Indy is a very special place, a special place to race fans in America, and has been for years. Honestly, I think, to me, when NASCAR started going to Indy in 1994, it started the trend for expansion, and it triggered a lot of NASCAR’s popularity in the minds of American motorsports fans. For any company, it’s huge to go there and have a degree of success.”

As mentioned, a Toyota Camry on the Brickyard’s elaborate Victory Lane podium is something that hasn’t happened just yet, but White says that when it does, it will be very special for Toyota, TRD and its race teams.

“If we were able to do that, certainly it would be something that was remembered by our management and our associates around the world who support wholeheartedly what we do,” he says. “There’s no question it would be big.”

Of course, for White and TRD, Indy is also one of the 36 points races, which means that they can’t forget the bigger picture. And with the Chase looming, the approach has to be the same as any other race, but that doesn’t stop it from standing out on the calendar.

“They all count, obviously, but there are certain ones that are special,” White said. “Of course, No. 1 on that list is the Daytona 500, which is America’s race and has been for years and years. Any one where we’re a title sponsor is big, too, like at Sonoma when Kyle [Busch] won, or places like Watkins Glen or Chicagoland or Charlotte, where you have a presence at the track.”

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, was a rookie at Indy last year, and had fond memories of participating at a track he’d never seen but had heard about since birth.

“I participated in the tire test with Zippy (crew chief Zipadelli) and the No. 20 team last year,” he recalls. “It was awesome. To come down the front stretch and have grandstands on either side and feel the bump as you cross the bricks is just cool. That was my first and only time there.

“The track has such a unique shape, it’s pretty clear your car needs to be good coming off the corners because the straight-aways are so long. You could lose a ton of time there if your car isn’t turning off the corner.”

Logano ran 12th in his first Brickyard 400 after starting from the rear of the field. He had to change engines before the race and dropped back at the start.

“It's cool just to be racing there. Like I said earlier, to have a good race car at Indy was really fun. To be passing cars, not getting passed, is always fun at any racetrack. I wish we’d had more time or started up closer. We might have had something closer to front. Every time I got around a car, got some clean air, I was like, ‘wow, a lot better now, holy smoke.’ We got around a lot of guys that day.”

Last year at Indy, the currently sidelined Brian Vickers finished fifth to lead the Toyota contingent, while this year’s Chicagoland winner, David Reutimann, came home eighth. Denny Hamlin has Toyota’s best finish at the Brickyard, with third in the tire-marred 2008 event.

Could a Camry driver go two spots better this time around and bring Toyota its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the storied Brickyard? All will be revealed Sunday, July 25.

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