Toyota clinched on Sunday its first NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturers' Championship since the 2019 season, and an opportunity remains to continue the success into 2027 as friendly rivals deal with their respective challenges.
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The 2027 season will mark the fourth season of the current Camry XSE body, which Toyota introduced in 2024. Chevrolet will only be entering the second season of the Camaro ZL1 while Ford will be entering the first season of the new Mustang Dark Horse SC.
History has seemingly shown that the Cup Series teams have a bit of a ramp-up period as they adapt to the new bodies.
"I think that it will depend on a number of different factors," Tyler Gibbs, Toyota Racing Development president, said in response to a question from FanBuzz on Tuesday.
"There are some things that are inherent to the design of each of the bodies that probably give them some advantage and some disadvantage.
"I think our body is... we've done a good job of maximizing that. Will we run out of ways to do that? We haven't yet, and don't see an end to that in the future."
Back in 2024, Toyota won eight races with its new Camry. It then won 14 races in 2025. This season, the affiliated drivers have combined for 18 wins. Denny Hamlin also entered the Chase as the No. 1 seed.
Ford, which introduced the Dark Horse in 2024, did not win a race with its new body until the 13th week of the inaugural season. Brad Keselowski won the spring race at Darlington.
The Blue Oval drivers then turned it on as the season progressed while winning 10 more times. Joey Logano also won the championship.
Ford drivers only won seven races last season and seven this season thus far. Chevrolet drivers have won eight races this season, the first with the new Camaro body.
Toyota expects to see a baseline of performance from its affiliated drivers in 2027, especially with Legacy Motor Club making moves behind the scenes to become more competitive.
The biggest unknown at this point is the amount of progress made by Chevrolet and Ford teams as they each work with their respective bodies. Can they quickly gain ground and push for wins early in the season?
"I think that we will continue to push forward, and you'll continue to see good performance from our car," Gibbs added. "We expect the Ford and the Chevy guys to get better. That's just the nature of the way new cars are.
"And so they probably have a little bit more — I don't want to call it low-hanging fruit — but they have more opportunities because the car is newer. At the same time, we know our car very, very well, which gives us an opportunity to know right where we need to focus."
One major factor that plays in Toyota's favor is the driver lineup. This group will feature some returning drivers who have all delivered wins over the past two seasons. It will also welcome two proven winners into the full-time fold.
The list of returning winners includes Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, and Bubba Wallace. The new additions include Corey Heim and Josh Berry.
Erik Jones also has three Cup Series wins in his career. He just hasn't celebrated a win since the 2022 season when he drove a Chevrolet.
"We want to remain here," Gibbs said. "Obviously, our driver lineup is going to remain strong, as is our team lineup. So we certainly want to continue to compete for Manufacturers' Championships.
"But I'll be candid — there's an expectation for us to compete for race wins and championships, and that's kind of where we've been living. I think you've seen, obviously, over the last number of years, we've had plenty of guys in the Final Four. The last one day event didn't work out for us the way we would like, but we've been right there competing to the very end."
