I heard about this a few weeks back and waited to comment….mostly because I don’t know how “hybrid” it is to race cars, but I guess I should be happy that NASCAR has decided to have a Toyota Camry Hybrid as the pace car for the 50th running of the Coca Cola 500.
Here is the official info from Toyota pit pass…..
TORRANCE, Calif. (April 21, 2009) — When a Toyota Camry Hybrid leads the 43-car starting field to the green flag for the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600 (Fox, 5:00 p.m., ET) at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS), it will mark the first time in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) history a hybrid vehicle will serve as the ‘official’ pace car for an entire race.
Before being approved to serve as the pace car for the upcoming May race the Camry Hybrid had to pass a NASCAR-mandated performance test. In order to qualify as a pace car for the race at LMS, a vehicle is required to reach speeds close to 100 miles per hour from a stand-by position near the exit of pit road to the time it reaches the exit of turn two, a distance of approximately one-quarter-mile.
So there it is folks, love it or think it’s a venue that is an odd combination….NASCAR and Camry Hybrid, what’s next? I guess we wait and see.
