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Toyota Camry Hybrid - Official Pace Car for Sprint Cup

Toyota Camry Hybrid will become the first hybrid vehicle to become a full-race pace car in the history of the Sprint Cup Series, as it was announced it will introduce the 43-car starting field for the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The Camry Hybrid is built at Toyota's plant in Georgetown, Kentucky and will serve for the official pace car in the Sprint Cup Series on 4 other venues.

As announced by the NASCAR in a press release, the Camry Hybrid will also see Sprint Cup daylight at Infineon, Chicagoland, Watkins Glen and Martinsville.

“Toyota is the leading seller of hybrids in the U.S. with more than a million on the road, so it's appropriate the Camry Hybrid is the first to pace a NASCAR race from start to finish. It's a tribute to the torque and other performance characteristics of the Camry Hybrid that allows it to meet NASCAR's requirements for pacing the longest race of the season,” said Ed Laukes, corporate motorsports marketing manager, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. in a statement.

According to the same official document posted on NASCAR's official site, the Toyota Camry Hybrid that will debut as official pace car at LMS will be awarded to a racing fan in the Southeast. Coca-Cola, the official sponsor of the LMS race, have hidden a “golden can” in their 50th anniversary 12-packs of Coca-Cola sold throughout the aforementioned region, and the lucky buyer will win the actual car.

The model is powered by a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, able to develop an overall 187 horsepower and averaging an EPA estimated 33 miles per gallon. In order to become the official pace car of the Sprint Cup, the car had to pass a NASCAR-mandated performance test (0-100 mph from the pit road exit to the Turn 2 exit being the most important speed test of all).
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