Toyota Enters NASCAR Competition

Toyota is entering the NASCAR world with its Camry race car. PHOTO COURTESY OF TOYOTA

By Johnny McDonald

The racing playground for Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge will have a foreign invader next year. Toyota is jumping into NASCAR's Nextel Cup and Busch competition.

The move comes as no great shock since the Japanese company has tested the waters in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series with Travis Kvapil giving the manufacturer its first win in July 2004.

The old motto of race on Sunday and sell on Monday doesn't really apply now but possibly Toyota sees this exposure as a way of putting it over the top as the nation's No. 1 manufacturer.

Toyota will enter the popular Camry and become the first foreign entrant since Jaguar's several races in the 1950s.

NASCAR rules state that vehicles that compete must be based on American manufacturing. Toyota does a significant amount of that in the U.S.

Camrys are built in Georgetown, Kentucky, and have been the best-selling car in the United States for eight of the past nine years. Clearly,Toyota is as American as GM, Ford, Chrysler and apple pie.

This year Toyota intends to build about 1.6 million vehicles in the U.S. and employs approximately 142,000 Americans.

The company has raced in several American-based sports car and off-road series before moving into open-wheel racing in 1996. After providing engines for several teams in the CART series from 1996-02, Toyota moved to the rival Indy Racing League, where it won 17 races, including Gil de Ferran's victory in the 2003 Indianapolis 500.

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They're coming back --Chrysler's Imperial and Chevrolet's Camaro are back on the drawing board for another look.

An Imperial concept, shown in the Detroit Auto Show, revved up the nameplate from the 1980s. It is drawn off the 300C body and stretched wheelbase, dubbed the baby Bentley.

Borrowing from the past, it would be as strong as a tank. Some years ago when we co-promoted destruction derbies at several fairs, we ruled out the car because it was too tough.

Lukewarm sales rendered what seemingly was the end of the Camaro in 1997. But low and behold, the plant has revealed plans to bring it back in 2009.

This time the design will feature a long hood, short deck and wide stance to present a performance appearance, backed up by a 400-hp aluminum small-block V8.