And on the Toyota battlefront, Joe Gibbs and his men are on the verge of getting NASCAR win No. 100 for the marque

  Joe Gibbs! Having a ball in NASCAR. Here with Kyle Busch and now new wife Samantha Sarcinella (L), Nationwide crew chief Jason Ratcliff (C) with wife Christi, and J.D. Gibbs and wife Melissa (R). (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

  

    "And when I went over to Rick's and looked at what we were getting, and how much we'd spent," Makar said with a laugh, "I knew I was going to have to call Joe and tell him he was being taken."
    Of course all's well that ends well, and Joe Gibbs Racing has become one of the premier operations on the stock car trail.
    While Gibbs' guys were whooping it up, watching it all from the wings was Toyota racing boss Lee White: "Do you realize that in their three years with us, these guys have won 98 major NASCAR races, including all Kyle Busch's wins?
   "That's amazing."
   Indeed, hiring Gibbs away from Chevrolet was key to Toyota's run of success.
 
  
  

   Toyota racing boss Lee White: the big boss is coming from Japan for the Daytona 500 (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)
  

   Now Daytona, just three weeks away.
   And the line right now is that a lot of drivers and teams are going to figure out ways to lose the sport's opening event. Most likely on pit road.
   The new E-15 fuel provides less gas mileage than pure gasoline.
   The new self-contained fueling cans contain a gallon or so less fuel than the old cans....plus the system is currently fraught with issues, gas men having major problems getting the fuel in the car.
    White says Daytona won't be the only race this spring where gas mileage and refueling issues could be a big issue.  "I'm predicting that we'll see where that will all have an impact....someone will win a race because they did their homework and take advantage of that.
   "So I can't wait to get to Daytona.
    "What I saw was that about half the 33 cars testing at Daytona last week were on two-car drafts. And that looks like it will be a very powerful package...if you can handle the cooling challenges."
    And how many laps can a trailing car run without cooling air?
   "I'm getting conflicting information," White says. "Some guys say three to 3-1/2 laps. Others are beating us up because we can't do more than that."
   Indeed, rival crew chief Brian Pattie put a big number out there – saying his two teams, with Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, can possibly get as many as 10 laps without having to swap positions.
   "We'll see....," White says, perhaps a little skeptical.
   "But everything I see says that this Daytona 500 is shaping up to be the best Daytona 500 ever."
    That may well be so, with the new asphalt, pretty even competition, varying strategies, and tactics – side-drafting for one.
    "I can't wait for the last 10 laps, regardless of who's out front," White went on.
   "Teamwork will be critical (with the two-car draft such an edge)....whether it's with your teammate or someone else.
   "And most guys aren't showing their hands yet. A lot of drivers didn't even run in the draft. Richard Childress' guys  (Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Paul Menard, and Clint Bowyer) didn't run at all in the draft; they didn't want to tear up their cars. But based on their history you know they're going to be great."
    Childress-powered cars won all four restrictor plate races last season.
    "They will be stout," White said.
    "But with all the variables right now, you can't call it. All I know is it's going to be a heck of a race.
    "There is enough new this year that it will keep everyone on their toes. There could be some big downstream effects from what may look like minor changes."

     Joe Gibbs (R) and star Kyle Busch (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    Over the past eight months, NASCAR has made some big changes in the long-controversial car-of-tomorrow, taking off the ugly wing, after three years, and reverting to the traditional rear spoiler, and now changing the nose.
    Is NASCAR now more amenable to making technical changes when car makers suggest it.
    Toyota's big boss, Akio Toyoda, will be attending the 500, showing that company's feeling for the 500.
     And White, like most team owners and TV personalities, is waving the pom-poms for this sport, hoping of course that it gets off to a better start than it did in pothole-marred 2010.
    "We are extremely pleased with this sport. Our company has totally bought into this sport. We believe it is good for business.
    "Akio Toyoda is coming from Japan to attend the Daytona 500. And I can't tell how big that is, for us and our teams and their sponsors, but also for the sport."
   Toyoda, at the recent Los Angeles auto show, said Toyota needs to be putting cars on the road that looking more exciting. And that could perhaps portend something new for Toyota in NASCAR.
    White himself says of the 2011 NASCAR stocker "The look of this car today is so much better. For me, for our company, for our customers, it's so much better.
    These cars need the spoiler; the wing just wasn't right – it didn't look like a NASCAR car.
    And the 'splitter' (that weird front bumper), when it was conceived, was an engineering exercise, and I was part of all those meetings, to get rid of the trick front springs and all. But now we have this new nose, and it looks so much like the (street) cars that are out there. It's amazing how much one piece can change the appearance.
    "Now we're all working on the new car (the proposed 2013 NASCAR stocker), where we all get a lot more character lines nose to tail. That will be a pretty big step, what we're getting ready to roll out for 2013."

    Big picture here:
    The American car business is joined at the hip with NASCAR, and the Daytona 500 is the sport's biggest race, and Daytona has $20 million of new asphalt, and NASCAR and its partners are promoting this sport to beat the band, and the car industry itself appears on a strong comeback trail – predictions are for 13.5 million new car sales this year.
   So White says wouldn't it be nice if NASCAR were also to feed in the rebound: "It'd be great to celebrate a revolutionary change in audience coming back, and TV audience coming back. That's why we're involved in this sport."
    But are the car makers still getting enough bang for the buck in NASCAR's Nationwide and Truck series? "Absolutely," White says. "The (Toyota) engagement there is somewhat tempered because of the other manufacturers pulling back.
   "But part of our involvement in NASCAR is being involved across the board. Including the K&N Series, even though they don't run our engines; they do run our branding.
   "And Toyota is increasing its involvement in NASCAR's Diversity program, and working with those young drivers – and we're proud to say 'hey, that was only us there. We don't see anybody else on the manufacturers side getting involved in trying to bring diversity and youth into this sport.'
   "It is absolutely critical for this sport, going into the next decade, that somebody help bring that along.
   "On the Truck side, I'm disappointed we're losing our champions – with Mike Skinner now having so much difficulty, and with Johnny Benson out of the series. Rick Crawford is gone. Those guys brought a lot to that series; they were fun to watch. It was a party every time they showed up.
   "Still, there are a lot of young guys coming in, and they deserve a shot.
   "But the big bang we get out of Nationwide and Truck is not so much the guy on the street buying a vehicle but within our company. As I travel around our country and talk with dealers and their people, they're watching all of it. And they are totally engaged. It's internal company pride."

   Who's really fast at Daytona?
   White says that's not clear, but he did like the speed he saw when Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin paired up, when Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski paired up, and when Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne paired up.
   But can the second-place car in a two-car draft pull out and make a pass?
    Ford's Greg Biffle says that may be quite difficult now, because of the new nose piece, that creates an odd 'air bubble' in front of the trailing car.
    And Biffle says the 'new' Daytona bump-draft is thus unusual – the lead driver actually has to ride the brakes and slow down, in order for the trailing car to 'burst' that bubble and drive up into his rear bumper. Now that would create a very unusual situation it would seem, where communication would be key.
   White agrees passing is still at issue because of the bubble.
   "The new front end has changed a lot, and we need to run a few of these races and see how the side-draft works – that is, the ability to pull out of the draft, play with the side-draft, and keep the momentum going.
   "Maybe you can pass...but then maybe after running three laps behind another car and getting your engine up to 300 degrees and you're down 30 horsepower, you might not be able to pass.
   "It will all be a combination of horsepower, getting to the guy (through the air bubble), timing....
   "If you get lucky enough that you can draft a guy down the backstraight and ride him around through three and four the last lap, you might still have the horsepower and momentum to pull out and pass.
   "But it will take a lucky set of circumstances to make that happen."
    So White predicts the Daytona 500 might well be won out in the drivers' coach lot before the race: "The way these drivers all hang out, you'll see a lot of friendships and partnerships crossing team lines and manufacturers' lines, when push comes to shove. I guarantee it."

      Denny Hamlin: Came close to bringing home another championship trophy for Gibbs (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)