Waltrip: Toyota not funding team

Former champion Dale Jarrett recently announced that he was leaving Robert Yates Racing after 12 seasons to join Waltrip's Toyota squad next year, prompting speculation that Toyota were funding the move after struggling to entice big name drivers and teams for their NASCAR debut.

"There is one thing I would like to point out," said Waltrip in a press conference held to announce new sponsorship from two fast food chains.

"As we are building out Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota is our manufacturer. Our sponsorship dollars are coming from NAPA, Burger King, Domino's, and Aaron's.

"We pay our drivers with our sponsorship dollars. This is not a Toyota team.

"I have been preaching that Toyota did not hire Dale Jarrett and Toyota is not responsible for the moves I have been making in the garage area."

Waltrip is working to add a third car to his operation for 2007, and added that this was dependent on external sponsorship rather than Toyota assistance.

"If we put out a third team, the car will not say Toyota on the side of it, it will be sponsored by another corporation," he insisted.

"There are a couple of companies interested in sponsoring this team and we set a deadline on ourselves on making a decision.

"We feel that that all the resources and synergies that we have by having more teams, we will make our cars faster because of that - which is ultimately the goal."

Toyota presented its 2007 Camry to NASCAR for approval on Monday. The car will run at Atlanta this afternoon, before undergoing dyno testing to ensure that its performance is within NASCAR's parameters.

So far only Waltrip, Bill Davis Racing and the new Team Red Bull operation have confirmed that they will represent Toyota when the Japanese manufacturer joins the Nextel Cup series next season.