Toyota teams, particularly MWR, look to turn it around
To say that 2014 was a year of struggle for the Toyota teams, I believe would be an understatement.
The numbers are glaring. In 2013, fve different Toyota Sprint Cup drivers won 14 races among them. Well, to be fair one driver, Matt Kenseth, won seven of those 14.
Unfortunately, this season the Toyotas simply weren't that dominant. They only won two races -- and taking it a step further, Matt didn't win a single race.
Now the good news is I believe they found, albeit late in the season, some of what they had been missing. So whatever that missing piece or pieces were, they seemed to get some of it back late in the year and were producing much better results.
Obviously this bodes well for all the Toyota teams for 2015.
I really don't think it's something they found and changed in the actual car, but they changed the horsepower output in the Toyota engines. That seemed to be their Achilles heel this year. It seemed like when they tried to turn up the wick on the horsepower to compete with the Chevrolets and the Fords, they had a durability issue and couldn't finish races.
As I mentioned earlier, for whatever reason, I noticed late in the season that they got better. They were sitting on poles, running up front and leading laps. It just seemed to me that their overall competitiveness increased late in the season.
So it seems whatever direction they were headed in is working and they just need to pick it up a little bit more. If they can do that, I can easily see 2015 being more like the season the Toyotas had in 2013 instead of the disappointing one in 2014.
I still believe, however, that Michael Waltrip Racing, which is in the Toyota camp, is facing an uphill battle. MWR lost some key personnel at the end of 2013, most notably the new 2014 championship-winning crew chief Rodney Childers. I don't think they realized how much Rodney brought to the table for MWR, and unfortunately for them they let him slip through their fingers.
Don't get me wrong, they are still a great organization, but they went backward in 2014 in a big way. They are going to have to pick it up and make some changes if they want to get back to their winning ways next season.
VIDEO: The lasting impact of the 2013 SpinGate scandal on Michael Waltrip Racing and others
