The New York Times’s “Wheels” blog reports:
Toyota announced this week that its Camry Hybrid would be the pace car for the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowes Motor Speedway on May 24, thus becoming the first hybrid pace car to serve from start to finish in a Nascar race.
It seemed like a nice, if minor, marketing coup, timed to coincide with Earth Day. But could the announcement also have been a small tweak at Ford?
In case you forgot, Ford’s Fusion Hybrid earned the distinction last November of being Nascar’s first hybrid pace car when it led the field to the green flag at Homestead, Fla. But the hybrid gave way to the gas-powered Ford Fusion Sport after the start of the race, leaving room for Toyota to make its own Nascar milestone.