The manufacturer has its foot in the door, and it's only a matter of time before it makes its presence felt in Winston Cup.
By JOANNE KORTH
Published June 14, 2003
All of NASCAR is bracing for Toyota.
The Japanese manufacturer will make its Craftsman Truck series debut next season, the first step on a likely course to Winston Cup in either 2006 or 2007.
Yes, change is coming.
"It's going to turn our world upside down," veteran driver Bill Elliott said.
Toyota already is a success in open-wheel racing. The manufacturer won 21 races in Championship Auto Racing Teams before switching this season to the Indy Racing League. Known for its no-nonsense approach, big budget and vast technological resources, Toyota wasted little time before announcing its presence.
In its first Indianapolis 500, Toyota powered winner Gil de Ferran and runner-up Helio Castroneves, teammates at Penske Racing, and six of the top seven finishers.
Already there is concern among NASCAR teams that Toyota will pump so much money into its stock car program that domestic manufacturers Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge and Pontiac will struggle to compete.
"They're going to come in with both guns blazing," said Don Miller, president of Penske Racing South, which fields Dodges for Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman.
"These guys are going to be playing for keeps. They're going to be very serious about what they do and I think all the other manufacturers are looking at that as well. ... When it happens, it's going to be the gunfight at the OK Corral - you wait and see."
The first shot has been fired.
Dodge recently cut off support to Bill Davis Racing and drivers Ward Burton and Kenny Wallace because it said the owner built a truck for Toyota, put a Dodge engine in it and took it to a wind tunnel test. Dodge is suing Davis for breach of contract, saying he violated a clause prohibiting teams from representing a DaimlerChrysler competitor.
Davis was one of Dodge's three original teams when it returned to Winston Cup in 2001 and Burton took Dodge to Victory Lane in NASCAR's premier event, the Daytona 500 in 2002.
Davis issued a statement saying he was surprised by DaimlerChrysler's actions and "believes that it has not breached the DaimlerChrysler agreement and that there is no justifiable reason" for the claim.
Toyota officials told the Associated Press the car company assumed Davis had clearance from Dodge.
"Toyota is looking forward to spirited competition and we certainly regret any discord between Dodge and Bill Davis," Toyota spokesman Xavier Dominicis told the Associated Press. "But this was certainly not a backroom deal."
Fans who believe NASCAR should remain a series for American-made cars are unhappy. NASCAR's rules say it is open only to domestic manufacturers, but Toyota is side-stepping that issue because the Tundra it will race in the Truck series is built in the United States.
"I guess it's okay for whoever wants to come in to come in," veteran Rusty Wallace said. "I never thought I'd see a foreign manufacturer get involved in Winston Cup, but a lot of those cars are built in the United States. It doesn't bother me much."
Former open-wheel driver Robby Gordon, in his second full Cup season with Richard Childress Racing, said perceptions of Toyota as a monster throwing around money are false.
"They're not going to come in and throw all the money around like you think they are," Gordon said. "What they're going to do is give the teams tools to do their jobs. They'll do like Dodge did."
In returning to the series after a 16-year absence, Dodge hired championship crew chief Ray Evernham to spearhead its program as a first-time owner. Evernham, who fields cars for Elliott and Jeremy Mayfield, believes Toyota will have a hard time exceeding Dodge's efforts. Nor will it receive preferential treatment from officials.
"NASCAR controls this series, so they are going to have to go through all the same templates and the same engine approval issues and the same testing and all of the same developing processes all the other manufacturers had to go through," Evernham said.
"I don't believe they can come in and work harder at it and be more organized and do some of the things better than Dodge. ... They're not going to come in and find an advantage in technology as much as they think. NASCAR is a tough sport. People come from the outside and think it's easy, but they find out when they get here it's not what it seems."
