Toyota 'frustrated' through first quarter of Cup season (cont'd)

Jarrett's deal, which was anticipated to be his final Cup contract, is set to end after the 2008 season.

Reutimann and Davis have both cited the presence of ill luck that has tainted their teams' efforts. And Davis, in particular said he wasn't in a mood to wait for his teams' performance to pick up -- he claimed Blaney was already there, and that his newest driver, Jeremy Mayfield was showing steady improvement.

"We have not run that badly, and where we are in the points with Dave's car is based purely on bad luck," Davis said of Blaney's 38th place in the driver standings. "He's been qualifying real well, and I think we're about to see another one tonight, so I'm sure we'll get back on track."

Blaney responded with a 10th place run.

Last weekend at Talladega, Reutimann appeared headed for a sure top-10 finish, and possibly a top-five when his car's engine broke.

"We had a good run last week and you all know that didn't pan out," Reutimann said. "It's not for lack of effort. I'm not disappointed in my guys or Toyota or anything like that, I'm just disappointed in the results we've had [and] we need to get better results."

Norris said both Toyota and Waltrip's team sponsor, NAPA, have expressed confidence and support.

"They always told us that the Toyota way is to be confident and patient, and have a long-term goal," Norris said. "They are an honorable company and they remain loyal to their teams.

"They told that to us on a number of occasions and [Toyota's chairman] explained to us that he has a 100-year plan. We said we love his 100-year plan and we'd love to be a part of it -- if we can get through our 100-day plan.

"They have been remarkable and would do anything we asked. They have been amazingly patient. We appreciate that. They don't put any pressure on us, any more than we put on ourselves [and] we definitely put a lot on ourselves."

Norris said NAPA, which has been rumored to be exploring other options within the Cup garage, would "honor our contract -- which is two years -- with options to go beyond that. They've expressed that to us a number of times over the past week."

In the end, Norris said his organization was comprised of racers and, provided it could get a competent technical director in place, was poised to reach a more competitive level. But he said without that position being filled, which was where they had hoped to place Jarrett's former crew chief Matt Borland, who departed this week, they would not be able to compete at the level they needed to be.

"We are not looking for sympathy," Norris said. "This is the hardest time to enter NASCAR with the level of competition and the qualifying rules. So, all the people who said a year ago that we were crazy -- you were right.

"I think if Michael Waltrip was a quitter he would have probably given up a long time ago when he was a driver, but he didn't give up. He got a chance to do it right and he won the Daytona 500 twice.

"He's not going to give up. We're not looking for sympathy -- we're just looking for people to look at the facts before making an opinion."