Toyota positive after Camry debut

Nextel Cup champion and former three-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Jarrett was the highest finisher among the Toyota drivers, crossing the finish line in 22nd. Michael Waltrip was the only other finisher in 30th, two laps down from winner Kevin Harvick.

"There are a few areas that we'll work on," Dale Jarrett said. "For our first race - not too bad. There was just stupid racing at the end, that's all that's good for - the green-white-checkers are terrible and tear up a bunch of stuff.

"We managed to come out of it unscathed, get us a few points - that's what we have to do here for the first five or six weeks."

Lee White, Senior Vice President and General Manager of TRD said Toyota enjoyed a good weekend despite all the controversy caused by Michael Waltrip's rule transgression from qualifying and the penalty that came with it.

"In spite of all the turmoil throughout the week, we still had a good weekend at Daytona. Friday night we had a great truck race -- phenomenal qualifying and four trucks in the top-five, including first and second.

Toyota were also making their debut in the Busch Series, where Dave Blaney run an impressive race, finishing second to Kevin Harvick. Jason Leffler had started from the front row, showing the speed of the Camry in qualifying.

"We had a good qualifying effort in our first NASCAR Busch race and to come out of that with a second-place was a great result for us. All of our executives were thrilled with that finish. Dave Blaney did a great job."

White expects the Toyota teams to improve their form in the second race of the season, which takes place this weekend at California Speedway.

"I think everyone understands the mountain we have to climb and the thing that we've said is that the most important thing is for everyone to keep improving; that is one of the fundamental characteristics of Toyota as a company.

"This process fits our company perfectly and if we as a company and TRD can keep improving the product and if the teams we're associated with can keep improving their on-track performance, then everybody's happy."