Toyota Introduces 2015 Camry Race Car

No longer just the so-called “sure bet,” it was a sleeker, slicker, more aggressive-looking 2015 Toyota Camry NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car unveiled by Toyota Motor Sales and Toyota Racing Development on Saturday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The new Camry is the product of a redesign project with two primary goals: to provide the vehicle with a more distinctive identity and to correlate the appearance of the car to the 2015 street version that was introduced early this year.

“A lot of hard work has gone into redesigning the 2015 Camry race car for NASCAR competition,” said TRD president and general manager Dave Wilson.

“It was a challenging process balancing performance and design, but working closely with Calty Design (part of Toyota’s global network design team), NASCAR and our race team partners, we were able to develop a race car that looks similar to its production counterpart–and provide a performance upgrade on the race track.”

The front fascia and grille opening of the new Camry mirror the aggressive design of the production car, and that’s perhaps the most obvious aspect of the new design.

Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota, was pleased with what he saw at the unveiling in the Charlotte media center.

“There’s a reason the Camry’s always been the No.1-selling car,” Bowyer said. “It is the sure bet, and it’s neat to see some styling enhancements make it a little more aggressive, just a little bit more sexy car than the that sure bet.

“Everybody wants a sure bet, but every now and then you’d like a good-looking date, too. Certainly, we’ve accomplished that with the Camry, and I’m pretty excited about it.”

Bowyer and other Toyota drivers will have a chance to get some track time in the new race car this year before NASCAR’s testing ban goes into effect Jan. 1. And with NASCAR’s new lower-downforce, lower horsepower competition package set to debut in 2015, Bowyer feels the timing of the new Camry couldn’t be better.

“I think it’s a perfect time to have a new car, to be honest with you,” Bowyer told the NASCAR Wire Service. “It’s a whole new rules package with a lot of unknowns anyway. So what you had last year per se isn’t going to be the same recipe for success next year with all the different rules.

“You’re pretty much starting from scratch anyway. So it’s a perfect time to start from scratch with even yet another car all linked together.”