Toyota, firming up its Craftsman Truck roster for the company’s NASCAR launch next February, will have seven teams next season, although the driver list is incomplete. Three owners will have two teams each, and one owner will have one. Bill Davis Racing, which has been Toyota’s behind-the-scenes leader in the Truck program, will have two teams, with drivers to be determined. TV announcer Larry McReynolds will front a two-Truck operation for money man Alex Meshkin, a young software millionaire from northern Virginia. Skinner like will drive one of the Trucks. Long-time Busch operator George deBidart also will have two Trucks, drivers TBD. The seventh player is Darrell Waltrip, working out of his brother Michael’s Busch shops, who will field a Truck for a driver not yet named. Toyota insiders say the company’s NASCAR V8 has not yet been track-tested but will be ready in time for official testing in January. The engines will be assembled and shipped from Davis’ High Point, N.C., plant, which has become Toyota’s East Coast base.(Speed Channel)(10-23-2003)
