Graves to head TRD's Nextel Cup program

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Andy Graves, a motorsports veteran with experience as a Cup crew chief and team manager, has been named a senior manager to direct Toyota Racing Development's 2007 Nextel Cup program, the manufacturer's inaugural season in Cup.

Graves, a native of upstate New York whose most recent NASCAR position was as team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, began in his new position on Thursday and has been at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend prior to Sunday's Bass Pro Shops 500.

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"Andy has joined us as our senior manager, which is kind of a field manager for our Cup program," said Lee White, senior vice president/general manager of TRD. "Andy will coordinate the engineering support activity along with [the Craftsman Truck and Busch Series managers] and Jayson Ashbrook, who runs our race vehicle engineering group in North Carolina.

"When we had an opportunity to have [Graves] join our group, given his experience and the respect he has in the garage, and certainly the friendship and respect he has with the NASCAR management, it was a home run for us."

Joining Graves are Toyota's current program managers, Laerte Zatta, who has been part of Toyota's Craftsman Truck Series program since 2004, and Rick Lantz, who worked in Toyota's open-wheel program before becoming TRD's Busch manager earlier this season.

"Those four guys are kind of the core engineering managers that handle the TRD vehicle engineering and the relationships with the teams at the racetracks and testing and so on," White said. "At this point that group is based in High Point [N.C.]."

With Graves' hiring, TRD's management team for next season is in place, but right now it's minus Pat Wall through this season. Wall was first a consultant to Toyota who became TRD's Truck Series manager and was an integral member of Toyota's progression toward Nextel Cup.

"Pat's still an associate, but at this point he's on a personal leave of absence," White said. "Pat's been a valuable and important contributor to this whole program, getting us up to speed with NASCAR, first as a consultant and later as an associate.

"That's really all I'm going to say at this point. He's on a personal leave of absence and his responsibilities are being handled by Andy, Laerte, Rick and myself, being in North Carolina."

Wall was also at AMS this weekend.

Graves' hiring was the latest move in Toyota's progression from just a competitor to its current domination of the Truck Series.

Earlier this year, White relocated to the Charlotte, N.C., area from California, where two other key TRD elements are located, in Costa Mesa.

"My wife and I moved in April and bought a home in North Carolina," White said. "We're dug-in, we love it and she's very happy."

White's long career includes successful stints with Roush Racing's sports car and Cup programs and Newman-Haas Racing's CART program before he joined Toyota in 1997. He said he was happy to be reunited with Graves.

"When Andy first went to work for Chip Ganassi it was to run his IRL Indy car team, when they were racing Chevrolets in 2000," White said. "That same year, Chip crazily decided he was going to run four cars at the Indy 500, and he called me as a favor to run one of those cars for him."

White, who was in the process of leading Toyota to drivers' and manufacturers' titles in CART that season, was able to oblige and Graves and White worked together the entire month of May and also went to the race that, at the time, followed the Indy 500, at The Milwaukee Mile.

"We had a great time," White said. "Coincidentally Juan Montoya won the [Indy 500]. I finished up the following weekend at Milwaukee and Juan was wearing the same helmet that he'd won Indy wearing, still with the sticker on it.

"He got out of his car at Milwaukee [after winning the CART race there] and handed me the helmet.

"So I have special memories of Andy. He and I have worked together and he's been very gracious as a friend, in the first three or four years of getting acquainted with NASCAR just helping me out with contacts."

TRD's engine design and development facility and an engine manufacturing facility are located in adjacent complexes in Costa Mesa. TRD operates its truck and Busch build shop, in partnership with Bill Davis Racing, in High Point; along with a chassis design and development and build facility that does most of the truck chassis, with the development and building of most of the Cup, Car of Tomorrow and Busch cars, White said.