Toyota executive 'a little disappointed' with NASCAR's Le Mans entry

Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports announced his intentions to take NASCAR to the prestigious Le Mans circuit in France earlier this year.

The home of the World Endurance Championship will see a variant of the Next Gen NASCAR on track as a Garage 56 entry in 2023. Garage 56 represents the entry that the Automobile Club de l'Ouest sets aside for technological innovation.

The collaboration aims to expose the world of stock car racing to the global motor sport stage and vice versa. A joint effort between Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, IMSA and Goodyear will yield results in the coming year towards the modified Cheverolet Camaro ZL1.

Toyota, being one of the leading automotive brands and a long-time manufacturer in stock car racing, has been feeling left out since the news broke in the paddock.

Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson expressed his disappointment towards the lack of communication with either Toyota or Ford about the program. He went onto elaborate on the topic to Jim Utter of Motorsport.com and said:

“I was actually at Sebring when that (announcement) happened. I had zero noticed. Candidly, I was a little bit disappointed that as a stakeholder and as a partner to NASCAR that neither ourselves nor Ford were alerted to this."

Wilson touched upon the extra track time Hendrick Motorsport would have, which could potentially give them the upper hand on road courses and said:

"Unfortunately, they are an active competitor in the sport and they are going to take some form of a derivative of the car that we race every Sunday to Le Mans. And it’s going to require arguably hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of testing."

While Wilson was appreciative of the effort by the governing body to put stock car racing on the world map, the approach should have been different, according to him.

NASCAR promises transparency going forward

NASCAR CEO Jim France has assured David Wilson that the Garage 56 project will remain as transparent as possible going forward. Ford and Toyota will have access anytime a car goes out for testing on the track as Wilson elaborated on his conversation with France, saying:

“We’ll have visibility to every test, every time that car is on track that will be shared with us. We will have that visibility and transparency because that’s what we’ve been promised. And we will be invited to every test."

Bill France, father of current NASCAR CEO Jim France, was responsible for introducing the stock car racing world to Le Mans for the first time in 1976. It remains to be seen what the collaboration will yield in the modern world.