Toyota to enter Nextel Cup and Busch in 2007

I'm already disgusted with NASCAR for implementing fines and taking away points on those drivers and teams who get into altercations with each other. A little bit is fine, it's always been a part of NASCAR, and the fan's love it. But now NASCAR is going to allow imports into the cup series. As soon as they do, I'm done with any part of NASCAR. I no longer watch the truck series because of it, and I will no longer watch the cup series. This has always been an American sport and should remain such. I've been a car builder and driver running the short tracks in Michigan for the past 39 years. I love the sport, but I'm an American and will not support anything that is un-American if I can help it. SCREW THE MONEY-GRABBING FRANCES.

Toyota does not belong in Nascar. No foreign car does.I don't care if they are made here in the USA. The profits go back to Japan. Nascar just keeps messing around with stuff that don"t need messing around with. Watch out Nascar! Your gonna loose what you have and your fat ass ain't gonna like sitting on an empty wallett.

If no foreign car belongs in NASCAR, then the Charger has to go. Daimler-Benz owns Dodge.

You're a moron. When Toyaota races, Im done and I hope that other Americans support thier domectic car builders.

NASCAR has the price of tickets so high an oridanary AMERICAN FAMILY can't afford to go anymore. Now some fat boy who could give a shit about racing is going to bring in forign CRAP.

i am a big fan of the nextel cup cars... i am also canadian and i think if you let those foriegn rust buckets in you are opening up pandoras box.P.S I don't know for sure what mikey's plans are with toyota, but if he works with them im burning his coat....

It's almost funny how uninformed you guys are about the auto industry. Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu and soon Kia, all have technology centers in southern michigan, right along with the "Big 3" Anybody with any real sense has moved on from the big 3 and are now focusing on the "Big 6" In order to be competitive they have to. Toyota is the second largest auto producer in the world, not allowing them into Nascar only limits competition. GM, Ford and DCX should be able to compete in an open competition and win as long as any foreign entry meets the requirements.

Toyota employs thousands of Engineers here in Michigan and Nissan does also. They are building plants while the Domestics keep closing them. While I'll always root for the home team, I say bring on the competition!!!

Reply to-Bluboris
Granted the foriegn manufactures provide some jobs here. Their presence here is hurting our American auto makers. What happen to loyalty ? I would not buy one of those Jap cars (WWII - Pearl Harbour). Send the money grubbing Frances to Japan, where they can start another version of nascar over there. They are slowly turning the racing I used to love into a pile of crap.

What you fail to realize is that foriegn auto makers money goes back to thier country and supports thier economic structure and what they take away is our economic structure of well paying and well benefited jobs, as well as all of the industries that tose well paid workers support. Food, fuel, schools, etc. What will this country do when we cant afford the very autos we make, if any ? You will need that KIa, Hyundia because thats what you will be driving.

What a big bunch of cry-baby xenophobes some NASCAR fans can be.

1. Take a look at any foreign automaker's corporate US headquarters and you will see hundreds of 'well paying and well benefited jobs'.

2.'Domestics' are laying people off because they are building cars that people don't want. Imports are hiring American workers faster than Domestics can lay them off! Ironically, GM's and Ford's OVERSEAS operations are still very profitable. Why? Because in the other markets, they sell cars that people want, cars that they won't sell here because they're shooting for the high margin vehicles. And for far too long they've expected people to 'buy American'. Personally, if I have to choose between an American turd and a foreign popsicle, I'm going foreign everytime. If it weren't for people in other countries buying 'imports' from the US, Ford and GM would be done for.

3. If true blue-blodded Americans really cared about some rich guy reaping rewards, there'd be no unions.

4. You can trade on any stock market in the world. You can benefit from Toyota's success. Trade on the Nikkei, buy Toyota stock, and you will reap the rewards.

5. With Toyota building a factory in Huntsville, Hyundai building a factory in Montgomery, Mercerdes building a factory in Lincoln, and Kia in talks to build a factory in Decatur (probably in a plant that Delphi is shutting down...which incidentially only MARGINALLY supported the community) imports are the best thing to happen to my beautiful Alabama in a LONG time.

6. Toyota is not the first import to run NASCAR's premier series; when they win they won't be the first at that either.

7. Toyota's program in NASCAR is funded and supported by Toyota Motor Sales, USA, which is the main US based distributor of Toyota vehicles NOT by Toyota Motor Corp, the Japan-based parent company.

You all have the same mindset that doomed Birmingham in the '60s. At that time Atlanta and Birmingham were about the same size. Birmingham was offered an international airport that would be the air traffic center of the southeast...One condition, federal desegregation laws must by upheld. Well, Birmingham said 'to hell with that, we like Birmingham just the way it is.' That damn airport, and the forward thinking minds of the people of Atlanta reaped the rewards while Birmingham turned into a shitter.

I for one am not going to stop supporting my Hendricks teams, but then again, people hated Jeff Gordon for not being Southern enough. Chevy all the way on the racetrack...doesn't mean I'm going to buy their product though.

And further to anyone who quits NASCAR because they don't like the direction it's going:

NASCAR doesn't care. For every single one of you that leave, there will be 10 new fans of the sport. NASCAR knows this already.

"Excellent" points, if Birmingham had an airport, it would be a mecca. And Toyota USA doesn't send one dime back to Japan. Please crawl back under your rock.

Wow! Not a single retort to any of my points?

Al,

Your very right. Here in southeast Michigan, the market for engineers and such is very strong, the Japanese OEM's or "new domestics" as they are called now, are hiring like crazy. I just got a job offer from a company headquartered in Norway. It's a global market, and to not think globally only dooms you to failure. Nascar is only moving forward into a global racing scene. Nascar has already run a race in Japan and in Mexico, it can't be to long before they have a permanent race outside the USA.

I look forward to seeing more great competition, though I still hope to see Chevy win.

The union mentality is mostly what is killing the "big 3", though uninspired product doesn't help.

Thanks Blu.

It's interesting to compare how the American domestic appliance manufacturers handled the influx of cheap foreign products. It occured at nearly the same time as the invasion of small imports. Ever see the commercials about the 'Maytag Man'. That industry played it right.

Innovate and dominate!!

ride a bike; save gas

Bama24, I agree, but those appalachian ridges in Birmingham make more difficult to do than in Torrance

Ignorance is bliss and I can’t believe how Japan has you filled with their BS. Please understand that Japan has told the US Government and the US auto makers to fuck off. They will not play fair in the world market and have been told that they must value their yen to the trade defect between the US and Japan THEY WILL NOT and value the yen to our US dollar. DO you understand this fact Alone is killing the US??
Japan engineer?? Give me a break.. They will only use Japan approved parts from Japan manufacturing plants and if they use a US plant here in the US that is only after they start a Japan owned parts plant here in the US. Get with is buddy.. When is the last time you saw a Toyota with a GoodYear Tire coming of the dealer lot?
This is what’s going to happen NASCAR. They come in copy all the technology, hire / steal top drivers and engineers Look at the IRL…

Mr USA:

Your rambling is a little incoherent. Just how have they told anyone to fuck off? In the U.S., they play by U.S. laws. So you want a law requiring that Japanese cars be built from U.S. parts?

Besides, you're just wrong. Every time a car plant is built in the U.S., a supplier's market grows up around it.

Mr USA,

Wow, the Japanese must have mastered mind control...yoda would be happy.

The last time I checked, Goodyear proudly proclaimed:
Goodyear is the world's largest tire company.
Goodyear is the No. 1 tiremaker in North America and Latin America.
Goodyear is Europe's second largest tiremaker.
Goodyear has more than 80,000 associates around the world.
Goodyear operates more than 90 plants in 28 countries.

Don't believe me?:
http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/about/about...

I don't profess to be able to change your opinion. All I can do is show you why it's wrong. I find it ironic that while I've come to this forum with points backed up by facts that anyone who can spell google can find, what I get in return is insults and broken logic, and accusations of unpatriotism. No one ever provides evidence that I'm wrong, they just come up with another reason they hate 'foreign' cars. After I prove this new point wrong, something new comes up. It's all getting boring really. I'd rather my points be challenged to a deeper level than sit here dealing with 7th grade logic.

And by BTW - GO 48!!!