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As I understand it, both the Ford and Toyota 410 sprint car programs are currently “factory only” available to the contracted teams (TSR for the Ford and Roth Racing and Aaron Reutzel for the Toyota).
While we were in Volusia we happened to be parked next to one of the co-owners of Gio Scelzi’s #19 during one of the many rain delays in Feb. The #19 was a Toyota team last year. He said that while the Toyota made LOTS of power, getting it to make the power in the proper rpm band for the track conditions was a major issue, along with the reliability. He said that the team was not allowed to touch the motor other than to install and remove it, which was also a problem for them in the chaos of the pits in the middle of a race. He also said that while the Toyota people assigned to the team were good people and hard working, they were completely unfamiliar with the intricacies and sport of sprint car racing and had an incredibly steep learning curve to go with the development of the engine. All part of why they opted NOT to continue with Toyota in 2023.
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