Toyota Supra To Race In NASCAR Next Year

After many years of entering the default family sedan/airport rental/company pool-car that is the Toyota Camry, Toyota USA is preparing to enter the American motor racing series, NASCAR, with the upcoming all-new Toyota Supra.

Slated to make its racing debut in the “minor-league” NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) at Daytona in February 2019, the Supra will compete with performance-coupe comrades in Chevrolet’s Camaro and Ford’s Mustang.

“When you talk Toyota and cool cars, Supra is the first thing that comes to mind for many auto enthusiasts,” said Ed Laukes, group vice president of Toyota Division Marketing. “Supra’s return in production form is huge news, but now we’re also going to see this iconic sports car return to American motorsport,”

“From a marketing perspective, it’s important to have a race car that evokes the dynamism and character of its showroom counterpart. We’re confident we’ve accomplished that with Supra, and we hope racing fans the world over will proudly cheer its success on the track.” Laukes added.

As per current NXS regulations, vehicles are essentially the same, utilizing the regulated steel tube chassis that features a 5.8-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine, 4-speed manual transmission and the rigid-axle on a simple trailing-arm rear suspension. 

Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet all painstakingly recreate the outer shell to mimic their production models as close as possible to give relevance to all. 

Earlier in March this year, Toyota Gazoo Racing unveiled the GR Supra Racing Concept and this racing car is the proper conversion of a road-to-racing machine, as global GT racing series requires the racing machine to be heavily based on the road-going production model.