Sep 4, 2006

Toyota and the Good Ol' Boys

Will the Toyota Camry be a car NASCAR fans love to hate?  Or will it be a car they hate to love?  It's likely to be one or the other, at least at first, as the Japanese brand invades the unabashed citadel of down-home all-American racing -- Nextel Cup. And the time we'll find the answer to the question is looming larger because the Toyota Camry racecar made its first official on-track appearance just a week ago, piloted by Bill Elliott, Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney. The venue was NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow test at Michigan International Speedway in anticipation of Toyota's entry into Nextel Cup racing next February.
 
The three drivers drove two cars, neither of which had the Nextel Cup-approved Camry engine, because that approval is still pending.  Team Red Bull fielded Elliott's Camry. Michael Waltrip Racing/Bill Davis Racing put together the car that Blaney and Waltrip shared. While NASCAR and Toyota tinker with the Nextel Cup power plant (it can be neither too strong nor too weak in keeping with NASCAR's unofficial edict of "even" racing) the two Camry used engines tuned for the NASCAR truck series, which Toyota has been part of for a couple of years.

While the entry of Toyota- and Honda-powered racecars in the Indianapolis 500 didn't signify the end of the world, that series has always had its share of foreigners -- from the Benz and Peugeot racers of its seminal days to the Lotuses and Coopers that became forces to be reckoned with in the Sixties. NASCAR, on the other hand, has never had a foreign make as a competitor.  These days, with so many Toyotas being built in Kentucky, Texas and California, some might well look at Toyota as a "domestic" brand, but it will be fascinating to see the reaction of the Nextel Cup crowd when the Camry takes its first green flag. And it will be equally interesting to see what the reaction will be when it takes its first checkered flag, which you can bet it will sooner rather than later.