[aomagrat]

Bill Davis Racing is being sued by Dodge for giving trade secrets to Toyoda.

[NYFriend]

NASCAR runs exhibition races in Japan, Toyota builds cars in the US, and you haven't been able to race an off the showroom car you welded a roll cage into since the 70's. Who cares if they call the purpose built race car a Toyota, because it was supposed to look vaugely like one?

[AdamSelene235]

The simple fact is Toyota makes a superior product. My Toyota pickup has 300,000 + on it and is still running great. By the time my Ford reached 100,000 it needed a new engine and tranny.

[DWPittelli]

Hey, if Japan can handle a Hawaiian Sumo wrestler (who is quite a champion, as I recall), then I think the American ego can handle a Toyota stock car, even if it wins races.

[eBelasco]

It's bad enough foreign drivers are brought in as ringers for the un-NASCAR like road courses, but if this is true, I say...

BOYCOTT NASCAR

[N. Theknow]

Doesn't seem plausible that Toyota would need to reverse engineer a NASCAR racing car.

That said, having Toyota in NASCAR would give me another car to root against beside Chevy. Kinda like rooting against a villain in the movies or the "masked" wrestler in the WWE.

BTW. Recently looked at buying a Toyota Sequoia, full-size SUV.

It is made in Indiana.

I am looking for SUV's that have a GVW over 6000 lbs. The new tax law says it can be written off entirely in the first 12 months?

[Pukin Dog]

What a stupid letter.

I wonder how many NASCAR fans in the south are employed by Toyota? What a nice way of calling all us NASCAR fans racists, still bitter about Pearl Harbor. Allowing Toyota into NASCAR will be a ratings bonanza, creating new rivalries and adding spectators. This is not the time for NASCAR fans to reinforce the stereotype of us being nothing more than racist, beer swilling hicks.

[an amused spectator]

Look - Ford sold me a junk 3.8 liter engine ( Ford 3.8L Head Gasket Trouble) and flipped me off when I called them on it. $1500 clams later, I bought Toyota, and they've taken good care of me.

When Toyota had a potentially similar problem (engine oil "sludge"), they actually sent me a letter explaining it in English, not lawyerspeak.

If American auto companies want to play the lying game, they can bark at the moon.

[Alberta's Child]

Just wait until the first Japanese NASCAR driver hits the circuit, and we are asked to believe that "Hideki Nakatomi" is actually Japanese for "Junior Johnson."

LOL.

[tacticalogic]

Is racing about character, hard work, and what happens on the track today - or the color of your skin, who your grandparents were, and what happened 60 years ago?

[IowaHawk]

Is this that thing where they paste detergent ads on taxis and drive them around in circles?

[eBelasco]

Furthermore, if I want to watch a bunch of foreign cars driven by foreign drivers, I'll watch that ridiculous procession they call Formula1 (which I don't).

[bigfootbob]

I was telepolled 2 years ago by a firm employed by Toyota about the NASCAR issue. They want in. They stress their manufacturing plants in the Midwest and South.

The author is correct. MOPAR, (NASCAR's once vehicle of choice because of the awesome Hemi), is German now. My '77 Corvette had parts from Mexico and Canadastan.

NASCAR's Championship Truck series allow rice burning vehicles. So where's the beef? Afraid of competition, perhaps? Honda and Toyota bring deeeep pockets to the sport, can that be a bad thing? Only if you're a scaredy-cat.

[truenospinzone]

"Hold muh beer so's I kin fire off this here eeeee-mail!" alert? "?

[ilgipper]

I see what is happening here....It's all related to Jesse Jackson. He got Toyota to, uh, donate billions to Jackson's organization a couple years ago. Recently, Jackson went after NASCAR, and all of a sudden Toyota is producing stock cars. It's all becoming clear.

[RightWhale]

I read this piece only because I own a Toyota. My uncle flew over Hiroshima the day after the milnuke detonation. He doesn't care if Toyota is in NASCAR or not. Neither do I. Toyota has made some really hot cars from time to time, and would no doubt add some technological interest to the races. Doubleplusgood.

[MineralMan]

And how many employees in the US does Toyota have? Add on the dealers and their employees. I'd guess a lot of those employees are NASCAR fans, too. Read below, and see the link.

From:

http://www.autointell.com/News-2002/July-2002/July-2002-5/July-31-02-p4.htm

* Toyota's North American operations directly provide more than 32,000 good and stable jobs in the US, Canada and now Mexico. When dealers and suppliers are included, Toyota is directly responsible for more than 175,000 total jobs in North America.

[giznort]

NASCAR is simply whoreing itself out for the $$$$$. It is not the same sport it was in the 1970s (or 80s for that matter). To them, it's money that matters. Your only choice is to extend to them the same loyalty they are extending to their fans. Maybe if they $$$ paid me, I'd become interested again.

By the way; there's no way I'd buy another Jap car. What a POS. One was way too many.

[Paradox]

Sorry, but this is more of a "red-neck" cause than a conservative one. In the latest world crisis, the government of Japan gave the US unconditional support. That says alot to me. Also, when push comes to shove over there in that region, and when its time to take out more IL smelling trash, the Japanese are going to be right there with us.

As for Jap vs American cars, its a silly debate, some are better than others for the money, some worse.

[stainlessbanner]

Toyota gave millions of dollars to Jesse Jackson.