Toyota Racing Development USA has identified the issue that has led to five engine failures since June and has taken prominent drivers out of contention for wins.
TRD USA President David Wilson provided the insight during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio ahead of Michigan. He explained that the manufacturer is now feeling comfortable heading to the two-mile track that heavily relies on horsepower.
"We've not held up our end most recently, and Martin (Truex Jr.'s) failure (Sunday) night in Richmond was -- we did have an 'Aha' moment because of that failure," Wilson said.
"Because the confounding part was -- the four previous issues were all different. The good news is three out of the four, they were explainable and they were fixable, but when Martin broke the valve spring (Sunday) night, it matched a failure all the way back to Gateway that Christopher Bell had."
Wilson said that TRD USA sent a team from Costa Mesa, California, to Charlotte, North Carolina, to work on the issues. He said this team went under the hood of every Toyota Camry XSE heading to Michigan to ensure that they could race hard during this pivotal regular-season race.
Engine issues have been prevalent for Toyota drivers in recent weeks. Christopher Bell had an engine issue at Gateway to kick off the month of June. One week later, Denny Hamlin lost an engine on the second lap of the Sonoma race.
The issues continued with Ty Gibbs losing an engine at Pocono. Gibbs also experienced engine issues at Indianapolis. Martin Truex Jr. then lost an engine and finished last at Richmond last weekend.
The issue for Truex, in particular, took away some of the cushion over the cutline. The 2017 Cup Series champion entered Richmond week more than 100 points above the playoff cutline. His last-place finish led to him falling to only 78 points.
With TRD USA potentially figuring out the underlying cause of the engine issues, Truex and the other Toyota drivers can move forward with more confidence. They can take on tracks such as Michigan and Bristol that stress the cars and their engines, and they can have faith that they will have the power available that they need.