Bill Elliott to drive three races for Toyota

[Elwood]

Bill Elliott to drive three races for Toyota this season

 

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Bill Elliott will run three races this season for Red Bull Racing as a warmup for its 2007 debut as one of Toyota's initial teams.

 

Elliott, NASCAR's 1988 champion, will attempt to qualify for races in Concord, N.C., Atlanta and Texas. The car make he'll drive has not been decided, but it won't be a Camry because the model has not been approved for 2006 competition.

 

``It's an honor to have a driver of Bill Elliott's caliber help us get the program ready for 2007,'' Red Bull general manager Marty Gaunt said Monday. ``His championship pedigree and his penchant for providing technical feedback make Bill the ideal fit for this important role.''

 

Red Bull is one of three teams that has announced plans to field Toyotas next season when the Japanese automaker makes its Nextel Cup debut.

 

So far, Michael Waltrip is the only car owner with a driver lineup -- he and Dale Jarrett will team to drive two entries. Bill Davis Racing has yet to announce its '07 driver lineup, and Red Bull appears to be having trouble finding a top-name driver.

 

Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick both signed extensions to stay with their current teams, leaving Casey Mears as the next best driver with a contract expiring at the end of the season. But Mears has maintained he wants to remain with Chip Ganassi Racing and is not talking to anyone about driving a Toyota.

 

Red Bull potentially could talk Elliott into piloting one of its cars next year. He's run a limited schedule the past two seasons, and his 2006 calendar has him driving five races for Waltrip and a select few for MB2 Motorsports.

 

Red Bull asked him to drive three this year as it tries to assemble a crew for the 2007 season-opening Daytona 500.

 

``The organization and its competitive spirit are what attracted me to Team Red Bull,'' Elliott said. ``My job is simple, to put the car in the show, drive it toward the front, and provide valuable input so that Team Red Bull is fully prepared by the Daytona 500.''

[454ss]

sad, very sad, all i can say is i hope he, jarrett and waltrip all hit the wall on the first lap of every race and never finish another. communist jap lovers.

[MS3DALE]

sad, very sad, all i can say is i hope he, jarrett and waltrip all hit the wall on the first lap of every race and never finish another. communist jap lovers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree,As long as no one gets hurt when they hit the wall

[Deere_Daze]

LOL...Tell us how you really feel!

Bill Elliott is doing testing for Toyota this year. Apparently they have the engine and chassis all done and are using a Monte Carlo body now untill the final body is approved.

Did you all get this bent outta shape when Dodge got back into NASCAR? I mean, Dodge isnt really American anymore.

[454ss]

in my opinion the whole thing is nascars fault for letting the german dodges run, because they did that there was no way to keep japanese toilets out, next thing will be all the rice rockets runnig out there. i dont really care though because i will not watch the toilets run, after this season im done with nascar and brian france can continue to ruin it all he wants, the jacka--! actually nascrap lost my respect the day brian france took over, between him and helton they think they are god. well, they can take thier politically correct iroc racing/toilet-car of tomarrow and stick it, there is nothing pure american about it anymore.

[antig24]

Sounds like Bill wanted to run more races, and Ray doesn't need him since he already has 3 teams now so he doesn't need an R & D team.

[Deere_Daze]

454ss, I think its "Bill" France, not Brian.

Also, you will never see the ricers out there because NASCAR's rules clearly state a 350ish cubic inch V8.

Personally, I say that if Toyota wants to build a car and race in NASCAR, more power to 'em. The Camry is the best-selling car in America and deserves to be represented.

The question is, will Toyota stay in NASCAR once they start winning? They have a history of coming onto a racing series, investing a lot of money and once they start winning they pull out.

I question how successful Toyota will be. They currently have the biggest budget of all the F1 teams and they arent competitive and they havent yet really hired any top tier drivers. Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott are all kinda washed-up has-beens, IMO.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

[General Lee 01]

in my opinion the whole thing is nascars fault for letting the german dodges run, because they did that there was no way to keep japanese toilets outnext thing will be all the rice rockets runnig out there. i dont really care though because i will not watch the toilets run,

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

 

I'd hate to play devil's advocate, but let's see here.

 

 

Richard Petty, THE KING achieved a great deal of his success in a Dodge, like it or not, "German Owned" Dodge has it's rightful place in the sport.

 

 

As for Toyota, this deal was gonna happen even before Dodge came back into the series. Anybody remember the Goody's Dash Series, more specificly, the Celicas that ran in it?

[454ss]

BRIAN france is running the show now, not bill. dodge belonged there back when they were american, but not anymore, you sell out, you lose your "rightful place". as for not seeing ricers out there, what the hell do you think a camry is ???????

[Deere_Daze]

Apparently we have different opinions of what a "ricer" is. To me, a ricer is a Civic with one of the big GT wings on the back, 15 million stickers of parts that mostly arent even used on that car and a fartcan exhaust. Tell me this: if you put a fartcan exhaust on a Cobalt, Focus or Neon, does that make it a ricer?

To me, that is not the Camry. To me, the Camry is the best-selling car in America that is built by American workers in the United States of America. In some ways, the Camry is more American than some so-called "American" cars, such as the Ford Fusion (a rebadged Mazda 6).

[454ss]

you can add brian vickers to the list of jap lovers as he has got permisson from hendrick to get out of his contract early and is doing a lot of pro-toyota talking, although he hasnt said who he is talking to about driving for.

[Deere_Daze]

I wonder who he would drive for. Perhaps the Red Bull team.

[MS3DALE]

I wonder who he would drive for.  Perhaps the Red Bull team.

 

 

 

 

 

Thats what I was thinking,The Red Bull team.

Rumor is now that Casey Mears will fill Vickers spot at Hendrick's,Since Mears said he won't be back at Ganassi for '07.

Gotta' love silly season,It starts earlier & earlier every year!

[TheEvilX]

I hope the toyota team blows up in qualifying...

It should be these:

Chevy, GMC (truck races), Ford, In the lineups as far as nascar goes....Great american sport...yea right! Now we've got frickin other comapnies comming in. That really sucks..it should be (No offence to anyone) american companys only. A battle between those three should be good enough! It's bad enough Honda ran chevy AND toyota out of IRL...atleast they havent gotten into Speed World Challange. Allthough team cadillac is only running one more season with the CTS-V race car...anyother dumb move by cadillac. Once again, getting rid of the race team. If I remeber right, the LMP cars did pretty good right? But back to nascar...it's over populated now. It's like china, full of people...

Anyways, rant over.

[antig24]

Now Elliot Sadler said he wants out at Yates, silly season gets sillier and sillier all the time.