The Only New Toyota Camry That Won't Be A Hybrid Is Racing In NASCAR

Image: Toyota

With the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season just a couple of months away, Toyota has unveiled its new Camry XSE Next Gen race car that will take to the track on February 4th when the series returns to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the Clash. The new-style Camry has been aerodynamically optimized while still reflecting the redesigned hybrid-only Camry street car’s styling fairly faithfully. Of course, as required by the series the Camry XSE Next Gen NASCAR racer will still be powered by a fuel-injected naturally-aspirated 5.87-liter pushrod V8 burning 15 percent bioethanol fuel and making about 670 horsepower.

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Toyota says that it has added “distinctive hammerhead styling” to the front fascia with an upper grille slot that is “tied into the updated slim and wide headlights,” but the race car doesn’t actually have headlights. Don’t forget about new hood character lines and the signature “c-shaped corner vents” in the updated bumper design.

“The 2024 Camry XSE race car will properly highlight Toyota’s attention to detail as has been showcased in the new street version Toyota Camry. We are excited to bring this car to the race track and continue to achieve success with it for years to come,” said Paul Doleshal, group manager of motorsports, TMNA (Toyota Motor North America). “The amount of work put into this car’s production cannot be overstated, and we thank everyone at TRD and Calty Design for their efforts in creating a premier vehicle for our team partners to compete for wins and championships.”

Image: Toyota

Calty Design in Newport Beach, California is Toyota’s US design studio, established in 1973 in an effort by Toyota to make its designs more appealing to the American market, and Calty has been working on NASCAR Camry designs since 2013. Toyota has been racing in the Cup series since 2007, and it has achieved some success with Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing, among others. For 2024, Legacy Motor Club (co-owned by Jimmie Johnson), the team formerly known as Petty GMS Motorsports, will move to the Toyota side of the garage.

“The foundation of Toyota’s presence in NASCAR is our commitment to continuous improvement on and off the race track. Our Camry XSE race car reinforces that mantra and accurately reflects the key design attributes of the all-new production Toyota Camry,” said David Wilson, president of TRD. “As we prepare for the 2024 season, we look forward to working closely with our race team partners to optimize the performance of the newly-designed Camry race car so we can continue our legacy of leading laps, winning races and competing for championships with the Camry nameplate.”