The curse of the 2nd Toyota Team In NASCAR!

One can only imagine what it’s like to be Toyota right now and hear that one of 23XI’s charters might be sold and that might pull the team out of the sport. One could imagine frustration, though not for the reasons one might think. Since 2008, the second Toyota team has been killed for all sorts of reasons!

Red Bull Racing!

There was a lot of excitement when Red Bull returned to NASCAR with Trackhouse sponsoring both Zilisch and SVG. This was because of Red Bull’s long history in motorsport and their recent success with Max Verstappen. It was also the nostalgia of seeing Red Bull back in the sport after their 1st failed run as their own team and sponsor.

In 2009, they established themselves as the second Toyota team when they made the Chase, winning with Vickers for the first time at Michigan, while he also earned the most poles that season. But two years later, right after winning their second race, they announced they were shutting down, which still leaves many bewildered to this day. But looking at Red Bull’s brand, it makes perfect sense.

Red Bull’s brand has always been about being the best in some way, but its NASCAR team wasn’t. Vickers was supposed to be the man, and in 2009, he showed he could be, but his health failed him. Blood clots led to him missing most of 2010, when the new COTs were being driven for the first time. When he returned in 2011, he was a year behind and struggled heavily. That, combined with his heavy aggression, led to the infamous Martinsville race, where he crashed 5 different times.

They rushed Scott Speed from PT in trucks to Cup, wasting his potential before dropping him. And Kahne, who got the team’s second win, was a rental from Hendrick. Compare this to every other RBR venture. In F1, the team started at a similar time and had won its 2nd title with Vettel, Loeb was dominating the rally, and Whincup was dominating V8s. Two wins weren’t going to cut it, so they cut the Toyota program.

Michael Waltrip Racing!

Darrell Waltrip, who is ironically Michael’s brother, once said, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t winning.” And MWR is the perfect example of what happens when a team is great at everything but cheating. They were behind JGR and RBR in the Toyota ladder. But they were setting themselves up for success using GM Ty Norris to get big sponsors like Napa, Aaron’s, and Domino’s.

Hiring drivers like Reutimann, who was perfect for a small team to build around and to outdrive the car on occasion. Although being disqualified for the Daytona 500 and starting the 2007 season with negative points because they got with rocket fuel was a preview of things to come. But hiring 2-time Busch Series champion MTJ after DEI collapsed was another savvy move.

But after Red Bull shut down, they went into overdrive, being forced to step up as they took over that second Toyota team mantle, and it worked. In 2012, they brought in Bowyer and part-time Mark Martin plus Vickers, and with Bowyer, they brought out the competition director of his old team, ex-RCR CD Scott Miller. Leading to both MWR and Bowyer, who went on to have their best-ever seasons. MWR went from a team with a couple of wins to winning 3 in 2012 with Bowyer and a new sponsor, 5-Hour Energy, and competing for a title, finishing 2nd in points.

In 2013, it looked like more of the same, with MWR winning twice and Bowyer heading into the Chase top 5 in points. Then “Spin Gate” happened. Trying to get MTJ into the chase, MWR told Bowyer to spin on purpose and then told Vickers to pit, all of which was caught by NASCAR. This caused the team to record fines, and sponsors and drivers to leave as well. They’d never recover, only lasting two more years and never winning another race or making the playoffs ever again.

Furniture Row Racing!

If there was any team that was going to outlast the Toyota curse, it should’ve been FRR. They were the team; they did everything right before they went to Toyota. They sold off their Nationwide series and 87 Cup car and focused everything on the 78 car. They hired discarded talents like Regan Smith, Kurt Busch, and MTJ to outdrive their staff and get race winnings up. They got closer with Chevy and RCR, and then, as RCR started to fall off, they got close with JGR and Toyota.

Leading to the 78 and MTJ dominating 2017 together and becoming the only other Toyota team that isn’t JGR to win the Cup Series title. But for the first time, it would be Toyota’s 1st team that killed its second team. Coach Gibbs hated being beaten by the alliance team, so he increased equipment prices. And in response, FRR would drop out of NASCAR, and now, with team owner Barney Visser dying shortly thereafter, the chances of the team coming back are slim to none.

Leaving Family Racing!

The team shut down before it could even take off. The 95 had put NASCAR fans on notice in 2019 when both LFR and Matt DiBenedetto had their best-ever seasons the moment they switched to Toyota. And they’re 11 laps away from winning their 1st ever race at Bristol on pace. But Toyota had a Christopher Bell problem. The Toyota prospect had been in the lower series since 2015 and had been doing nothing but winning, even being a truck series champion in 2017. So if they weren’t going to bring them to the Cup, some other Ford or Chevy team would pick up Bell themselves.

So Toyota made an executive decision, and with no seats available at JGR, DiBenedetto would get the boot, and Bell would be LFR’s driver for 2020. Looking back, this was the correct move, as Bell has quickly developed into one of the best drivers in NASCAR. Capable of winning three races in a row and making multiple final 4s.

Doing it all with Toyota and JGR meant completely going against Ron Leavine’s authority as a team owner, as he wanted to keep building with Dibby. So, despite having as good a season as he did with rookie Bell, he decided that he was going to pick up his ball and play somewhere else. In fact, he would never return to that court ever again. After 2020, Ron would shut down his team and hasn’t returned.

Now 23XI!

With Michael Jordan co-owning a team with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, this seemed like the team that would withstand the second Toyota curse. If teams like Red Bull and MWR could not make it work, then a team with the brand and backing of the greatest basketball player ever and one of the best drivers in the sport, who was still on JGR, would withstand everything thrown at them, yeah?

To start, they signed the polarizing Bubba Wallace right after the Talladega noose controversy and even won their first race in the rain at Talladega. That was nothing compared to their 2022, and how chaotic that was.

They managed to sweep Kansas but not win anywhere else. Then there was how chaotic things got after Kurt Busch’s Pocono injury, where Ty Gibbs, who hadn’t even completed his first full-time year in Xfinity, would replace Kurt Busch at least until Wallace was put in the 45 for owner points reasons and Ty Gibbs was put in the 23 until the finale, which he would miss due to his father’s tragic passing, so Hemric would drive in the 23, and JHN got a start in the 45 after Bubba wrecked and fought Larson at Vegas and earned a suspension.

Then there was signing Tyler Reddick and how controversial that was. The original plan was to have Reddick debut in 2024 because it was unknown if Kurt Busch would come back in 2023. But RCR openly said they felt betrayed and confirmed that Reddick wouldn’t come back to RCR in 2023. So as tragic as Busch’s career-ending injury was, it was a blessing in disguise for Reddick because otherwise he might’ve had to spend a year on RWR or something. After the usual second Toyota team chaos, 23XI Racing would experience stability.

With Reddick winning multiple races again in 2023 and Wallace finishing 10th in points, then Reddick in 2024 transformed into a title contender. Winning three races and making 23XI’s first-ever final four, finishing 4th in the standings. Then they sued NASCAR along with FRM. This has made massive waves throughout the NASCAR world. FRM and 23XI sued NASCAR for being a monopoly after they felt they were pressured heavily into signing the new charter agreement. This saw both FRM and 23XI have their charters revoked for the season.

The lawsuit hasn’t been going well either, with NASCAR even being confident enough to sell or at least be looking to sell one of 23XI’s charters. Something that Jordan has said is that if it goes through, it means 23XI shuts down. This would be awful after all the potential the team has shown, how many great people they employ, and how important it’s been for the brand of NASCAR.

Bringing in brands like McDonald’s (giving them their first win in 20 years), Columbia, Star Wars, Monster Energy, and of course Jordans. But even if they live through this year, it’s clear 23XI has been infected with the usual chaos all 2nd Toyota teams go through, all for totally different reasons. Thanks a bunch for reading!