No, your eyes aren’t lying to you and this isn’t some kind of weird dream. Toyota has actually entered a Supra into NASCAR, starting next year. While it may not seem super clear why Toyota chose to pursue a pushrod V8-powered Supra going around an oval 500 times at first, they have their reasons and it’s down to TRD USA. The connection to NASCAR came back in 2003 when Toyota and TRD were committing big time to open-wheel series, winning Indy 500, but decided it wasn’t in-line with the company’s goals and were a far cry from what the punters could buy at dealerships.
Meanwhile, NASCAR was surging and Toyota saw the chance to enter a more realistic looking car to capture the American demographic. They won several races that would see a correlation between podium placings and people buying their cars, so it only made sense to stay committed.
Now, enter the premier performance model from the manufacturer, the Supra, and bingo, you have a new shape to leverage off in the series. That’s all good and well over in Yank land, but what we really want to know is if Toyota / TRD Australia will take note and attempt to replicate such tactics within the Supercars series. Will we see the new Supra take on Bathurst? We’d sure as hell like to watch it go toe-to-toe with the GT-R …
