Tue Feb 26 13:14:49 2008

Comment | Email | Print

Toyota becoming a Sprint Cup force

---

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Although we have yet to visit a 1.5-mile speedway or a short track this season, we hold these truths to be self- evident:

Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch have made Toyota-power a major force in NASCAR.

Busch leads the Sprint Cup Series by six points over 2008 Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, and 19 points over third-place Stewart. He led 86 laps at Daytona and was the fastest car on the track for most of the day. Busch also leads the Craftsman Truck Series, and is second to Stewart in the Nationwide Series with two second-place finishes.

"Kyle is a huge talent," two-time defending series champion and former teammate Jimmie Johnson said. "He's been able to show that in whatever he drives."

Stewart probably should have won Daytona, except that he opened the door for Newman and Kyle's older brother Kurt to "rim-ride" their way to the title. Stewart has also won both Nationwide Series events.

Last year, Toyota struggled just to make races and finished the season without a win, one pole, 11 top-10s and led just 166 of 10,582 laps. After adding Joe Gibbs Racing and their knowledge to the mix, in two events Toyota has collected four top-10s (Busch and Stewart two each) and led 155 laps.

Roush-Fenway Racing is also back in the championship mix.

After failing to get a handle on the COT in the early part of 2007, RFR put in the off-season work to make themselves a threat to win each and every week. Matt Kenseth, despite having his crew chief "kicked upstairs," has been right there, Carl Edwards won this week at the Auto Club Speedway, and Jeff Burton is a team leader, steadying force and a consistent winner.

"Everyone has worked really hard this winter and it's paid off," Edwards said. "This is the reason we won this race, because of the preparation. I'm proud to be driving that car right now."

Johnson and Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports are still the guys by which everyone measures themselves and their team.

After a slow start in the Daytona 500, Johnson and Gordon were back on their game this week - finishing second and third, respectively. Gordon called his car a "rocket ship" on Friday night, and was three seconds better than everyone in the cool of the evening. The car struggled a little in Monday afternoon's heat, and Gordon still finished third.

Johnson overcame a bad pit stop to rally from eighth and take the lead with just a few laps left, before settling for second behind Edwards.

HMS added superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the team, and is expected to put three drivers in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup."

Now it's on to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for week three of the 26-race "Pre-Chase Race," to determine the 12 drivers who will make NASCAR's playoffs. After last year's 18-win domination by Hendrick Motorsports, it is exciting to see that the competition has raised their game to HMS levels.