SALISBURY — Rowan County became the center of the NASCAR universe for a few hours today as Toyota Racing Development revealed the 2013 Camry race car at the engineering facility off Peach Orchard Road.
NASCAR officials, team owners and drivers Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Bobby Labonte and Michael Waltrip praised the new design of the race car, which looks more like the Camry found in the showroom and on the highway.
The introduction of the new Camry for NASCAR competition marks the culmination of an aggressive redesign to provide the car with an updated and more unique identity.
The Rowan County facility, which specializes in chassis engineering, played a key role in development of the new Camry. TRD’s main facility is in Costa Mesa, Calif., but officials said the Rowan County facility, which employs about 40 people, served as headquarters for the redesign effort.
TRD worked with Calty Design, part of Toyota’s global network design team, to create an on-track Camry that incorporates design elements of the showroom Camry.
“We’re thrilled to finally unveil our new 2013 Camry, and we think NASCAR fans will really appreciate that our new on-track Camry looks like the one in their driveways,” said Ed Laukes, Toyota Motor Sales vice president of marketing communications and motorsports.
“Our 2013 Camry looks more like the production vehicle than ever before, and we hope this helps revitalize the long-standing relationship between fans and manufacturers in NASCAR,” he said. “Never before have we had a Camry competing in NASCAR that looked so similar to its production counterpart.”
The new Camry will make its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at Daytona in February.
Read more in Wednesday’s Post.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.