Denny Hamlin didn’t break 110 mph Tuesday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but he still was impressed with a car whose speed pales in comparison to that of his Sprint Cup ride.
“I thought it wouldn’t take off as well as a combustion engine,” Hamlin said after about an hour making laps in a 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid that will pace the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 at the 1.5-mile oval. “The pickup was surprising; I’m amazed it takes off as good as anything.”
Acceleration was an important feature in winning approval for the vehicle, which will become the first hybrid used as a pace car for the duration of a Cup event (a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid led the field to the green flag in the 2008 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway before yielding to a 2010 Ford Fusion Sport).
From a standing start at the pit exit in Turn 1, the 187-horsepower, four-cylinder Camry (which wasn’t modified from the street model that retails for about $33,000 and gets an EPA-estimated 33 miles a gallon) had to reach 100 mph by the exit of Turn 2 to satisfy NASCAR’s standards for pacing the 600-mile event, the longest on the 36-race Cup schedule. USA Today
A big gust of wind coming from the infield caught the left side of the car. If you were a sailor, you’d have been smiling. If you were a passenger, you were screaming.
The car came within a foot of the wall, although it appeared much closer from where I was sitting in the backseat. Hamlin reached over and grabbed the wheel with both hands, admitting without losing his devilish smile that even he was caught off guard.
“What if you’d hit the wall?” the front-seat passenger asked.
Hamlin laughed and said, “They’ve got a backup.”
Hamlin hopes not. Nothing against saving gas, but he likes the noise. This car is so quiet, you’re not aware the engine is running when you mash the start button.
“I’d prefer the stock car only for the reason that I know, as a fan, when I used to sit in the stands, how exciting it was to hear the engines roar,” Hamlin said. “The start of the engines, the ground kind of shakes. You’re just not going to get that with a hybrid.”
The only thing shaking on this day were the passengers, particularly the one in the front seat. ESPN
