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Toyota officials knew there would be some speed bumps along the way in the company's first foray into Nextel Cup.
They knew there would be some weeks in which a team or two might not make the race.
But suddenly, those speed bumps look like roadblocks.
After just three races, the whole Toyota Cup program looks like it's floating on the Titanic with disaster looming ahead.
At Daytona, three of Toyota's seven full-time teams failed to make the Daytona 500.
At California Speedway, three more missed the field, two for the second straight week.
Then, last week at Las Vegas, things got even worse. Much worse.
Only two of the seven Camry teams made the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, with Michael Waltrip, David Reutimann, Brian Vickers, AJ Allmendinger and Jeremy Mayfield all going home.
Waltrip and Vickers, two of Toyota's star drivers, have missed two of the three races. Mayfield, a five-time winner in the Cup series, and Allmendinger, Toyota's prize recruit from the Champ Car Series, have missed all three races.
With just two drivers in the field at Vegas, things couldn't get much worse. But they did.
Dave Blaney wrecked on lap 18 and finished 42nd. Dale Jarrett, who needed a champions provisional just to make the race, got lapped four times and finished 33rd.
Blaney, who is currently locked into the field each week thanks to NASCAR's top-35 rule, is now 41st in owner points. If he doesn't climb back into the top 35 in the next two races, he could start missing races.
Jarrett, thanks to his champions provisional, has made all three races and is 31st in owner points. But he can use the champions provisional only three more times this year, so if he falls out of the top 35, he, too, could go home.
With Vickers, Waltrip, Reutimann, Mayfield and Allmendinger falling further and further in the point standings, Toyota now faces the possibility that it may not have any cars or any drivers in some upcoming race(s).
With all seven teams fighting for their lives, that is suddenly a very real possibility.
Did Toyota see this coming?
Toyota officials didn't enter its first Nextel Cup season with high expectations, but surely they didn't expect things to be this bad.
Maybe they should have.
For months we've heard how the automotive giant poured money into its Cup teams, attracting crewmen and crew chiefs from other teams.
But maybe it poured all that money into the wrong operations.
Michael Waltrip Racing has very little experience fielding a Nextel Cup team, much less three.
Though Waltrip has proven to be a brilliant businessman, landing the support of Toyota and luring sponsorships for three teams, he is unproven as a team owner, especially one who is building an operation from scratch.
Forget the fuel scandal at Daytona, which cost his team 100 points, $100,000 and two key crewmen. Even it wasn't as embarrassing as the performance of Waltrip's three-car team so far.
"It is not so much my [team], it is my whole company. Our cars are not running right," Waltrip said after missing the race at Las Vegas. "It's just real disappointing. I'm really concerned about why we aren't any better than we are. ... We have to go to work; we have to figure things out. We have to change some things up. We have to rearrange some people."
Team Red Bull is in even worse shape. Trying to make the transition from open-wheel racing to NASCAR, it has put one of its two cars in just one race this year. Vickers, who won a race for Hendrick Motorsports last season, has now failed to qualify twice while Allmendinger, one of Champ Car's biggest stars last year, hasn't made a Cup race yet.
Bill Davis Racing has been only slightly better. Blaney has run well at times, but Mayfield is 0-for-3 during qualifying, burying BDR's new team in a hole it might not get out of.
Toyota officials say they knew what they were facing.
"It's really unfortunate and disappointing for Toyota ... but we knew this was a huge challenge coming into this series," Andy Graves, Toyota's Nextel Cup manager, told NASCAR Scene. "We're just here to understand the level of competitiveness and be respectful of our competitors. If there was a silver bullet that could solve all the problems across the board, that might be easier to handle."
Instead, its struggles will likely continue. Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of this week's race, is a fast, tough track that is hard on engines. Putting more than three or four Toyotas in the field will be another huge challenge.
Then comes the first car of tomorrow race at Bristol. If Toyota's teams are this far behind with the current Nextel Cup car, how far off they will be with the COT?
At this point, the only thing Toyota teams aren't lacking is optimism.
"You cannot define the future by what we are doing here today," Waltrip said at Las Vegas. "This isn't who we are."
Who are they?
"I think we will be defined as a team that started out with a whole lot of hope and optimism," Waltrip said. "We were smacked in the head with reality and then we dug deep and overcame it. That's what I think and that is the only answer I'll accept."
For now, that's all Toyota has to brag about — hope for the future.
They knew there would be some weeks in which a team or two might not make the race.
But suddenly, those speed bumps look like roadblocks.
After just three races, the whole Toyota Cup program looks like it's floating on the Titanic with disaster looming ahead.
At Daytona, three of Toyota's seven full-time teams failed to make the Daytona 500.
At California Speedway, three more missed the field, two for the second straight week.
Then, last week at Las Vegas, things got even worse. Much worse.
Only two of the seven Camry teams made the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, with Michael Waltrip, David Reutimann, Brian Vickers, AJ Allmendinger and Jeremy Mayfield all going home.
Waltrip and Vickers, two of Toyota's star drivers, have missed two of the three races. Mayfield, a five-time winner in the Cup series, and Allmendinger, Toyota's prize recruit from the Champ Car Series, have missed all three races.
With just two drivers in the field at Vegas, things couldn't get much worse. But they did.
Dave Blaney wrecked on lap 18 and finished 42nd. Dale Jarrett, who needed a champions provisional just to make the race, got lapped four times and finished 33rd.
Blaney, who is currently locked into the field each week thanks to NASCAR's top-35 rule, is now 41st in owner points. If he doesn't climb back into the top 35 in the next two races, he could start missing races.
Jarrett, thanks to his champions provisional, has made all three races and is 31st in owner points. But he can use the champions provisional only three more times this year, so if he falls out of the top 35, he, too, could go home.
With Vickers, Waltrip, Reutimann, Mayfield and Allmendinger falling further and further in the point standings, Toyota now faces the possibility that it may not have any cars or any drivers in some upcoming race(s).
With all seven teams fighting for their lives, that is suddenly a very real possibility.
Did Toyota see this coming?
Toyota officials didn't enter its first Nextel Cup season with high expectations, but surely they didn't expect things to be this bad.
Maybe they should have.
For months we've heard how the automotive giant poured money into its Cup teams, attracting crewmen and crew chiefs from other teams.
But maybe it poured all that money into the wrong operations.
Michael Waltrip Racing has very little experience fielding a Nextel Cup team, much less three.
Though Waltrip has proven to be a brilliant businessman, landing the support of Toyota and luring sponsorships for three teams, he is unproven as a team owner, especially one who is building an operation from scratch.
Forget the fuel scandal at Daytona, which cost his team 100 points, $100,000 and two key crewmen. Even it wasn't as embarrassing as the performance of Waltrip's three-car team so far.
"It is not so much my [team], it is my whole company. Our cars are not running right," Waltrip said after missing the race at Las Vegas. "It's just real disappointing. I'm really concerned about why we aren't any better than we are. ... We have to go to work; we have to figure things out. We have to change some things up. We have to rearrange some people."
Team Red Bull is in even worse shape. Trying to make the transition from open-wheel racing to NASCAR, it has put one of its two cars in just one race this year. Vickers, who won a race for Hendrick Motorsports last season, has now failed to qualify twice while Allmendinger, one of Champ Car's biggest stars last year, hasn't made a Cup race yet.
Bill Davis Racing has been only slightly better. Blaney has run well at times, but Mayfield is 0-for-3 during qualifying, burying BDR's new team in a hole it might not get out of.
Toyota officials say they knew what they were facing.
"It's really unfortunate and disappointing for Toyota ... but we knew this was a huge challenge coming into this series," Andy Graves, Toyota's Nextel Cup manager, told NASCAR Scene. "We're just here to understand the level of competitiveness and be respectful of our competitors. If there was a silver bullet that could solve all the problems across the board, that might be easier to handle."
Instead, its struggles will likely continue. Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of this week's race, is a fast, tough track that is hard on engines. Putting more than three or four Toyotas in the field will be another huge challenge.
Then comes the first car of tomorrow race at Bristol. If Toyota's teams are this far behind with the current Nextel Cup car, how far off they will be with the COT?
At this point, the only thing Toyota teams aren't lacking is optimism.
"You cannot define the future by what we are doing here today," Waltrip said at Las Vegas. "This isn't who we are."
Who are they?
"I think we will be defined as a team that started out with a whole lot of hope and optimism," Waltrip said. "We were smacked in the head with reality and then we dug deep and overcame it. That's what I think and that is the only answer I'll accept."
For now, that's all Toyota has to brag about — hope for the future.
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