BUSINESS AS USUAL? What Toyota is really up to.(Motorsports)

Byline: AL PEARCE

We have it all wrong, those of us who chase the weekly soap opera that is NASCAR. And we've had it all wrong since mid-January, when Toyota Racing Development unveiled plans for having three two-car teams in Nextel Cup next year. Much of our reporting (we're now told) has been flawed, tainted by "mainstream'' team owners who wish TRD would take its toys and money and play somewhere else. Toyota, contrary to popular pit-lane belief, isn't choosing drivers, poaching team members and entirely bankrolling its allies as it prepares to enter Nextel Cup.

So says Michael Waltrip, the two-time Daytona 500 winner who is building his own Camry-based organization. He'll drive one with NAPA backing, and he fervently hopes Dale Jarrett (some say at $20 million for two years) will drive the other. But regardless of what happens, Waltrip is saying that Toyota corporately isn't telling him or Bill Davis or Red Bull Racing what to do.

"I'm trying to change the world here, so work with me,'' Waltrip said to start a press conference during Aaron's 499 weekend at rainy Talladega Superspeedway. "Maybe Toyota's absence in the Cup garage has given y'all the chance to listen to some of the comments from other owners. And you say, `Okay, now where do I go for rebuttal from the Toyota side?' Well, they're at the Craftsman races, competing. So then say, `There isn't any rebuttal, so I guess that other guy must be right.'

"Well, it's embarrassing to read the way things are told when they're not correct. I like to hide in my motor home when I'm not in my car, but I'll make myself available to y'all. Come see me with questions or if you want a comment or a reply to what somebody's said. For example: I keep reading where Toyota has talked to Ricky Rudd and Toyota wants crew members and Toyota wants this or that driver. That's not true. Toyota teams have talked to Ricky Rudd and Toyota teams have talked to crew members. My Toyota team, not Toyota itself, wants Dale Jarrett. I promise you I'm not a figurehead out here. It's my money; I'm the one making this huge investment in Michael Waltrip Motorsports.

"Remember that Toyota didn't raid existing Craftsman Truck Series teams when they came in [with Tundras] in 2004. They started all-new teams. We're at liberty to get whoever we want to drive our other car, and we'll get the best guy we can. It's more important to my sponsors who we get than it is to Toyota. We have a list of drivers our sponsors like, but Toyota has no opinion in the matter. They're not telling me what to do or paying my bills.''

Some owners and crew men in the Cup garage find that laughable. Eddie Wood of Wood Brothers stopped short of calling it a lie when he said, "Toyota doesn't have a budget, but they have an agenda [to take over the sport]. I don't think Michael's team has enough to pay Jarrett what people are saying.'' Don Miller of Penske South said, "Come on, who's kidding who?'' when told of Waltrip's statement. "Toyota may not be writing checks to people they want, but they're writing checks to owners so they can hire the people they want.'' Jay Frye of MB2 Racing said Toyota is doing exactly what Dodge did when it returned to NASCAR in 2001. "But people see what Toyota's done in F1 and Indy car, so their perception is that Toyota will do the same here,'' he said.