Whats the beef with anything anyone does these days? People have a beef with products made from cloned animals for some reason...I wonder what their position on twin animals is? Or who was it in the Super Bowl commercial working in a burger joint, Justin Timberlake? Some black people were bent out of shape because someone said that new political guy Obama is articulate. Sounds like a compliment to me. Someone will gripe about anything these days.

Don't know about the foreign car entries you're refering too. In any case, you have to admit that NASCAR has been an american car deal from the start. People don't think of these companies being multinational now. I'd bet if Toyota purchased the name AMC and produced cars with those old names, some of those people probably wouldn't object to an AMC Javelin being entered even if the parent company was Toyota.

"new political guy"?

I think the media has just inflamed the Toyota issue. Nascar fans aren't just rednecks anymore. Most people I talk to think that any new makers in NASCAR are nothing but good for it.

I'm dying to see Toyota enter NASCAR. Nothing like challenging long-standing assumptions! :-)

I liked the good old days back in the mid sixties when the car bodies were still steel and a Ford was a Ford. Chevrolets had Chevy engines and Dodge ran Hemi's. Todays Nascar Stockers all run the same engine and except for the fake body panels every car is almost the same as any other.

BTW the Chevys racing today are built in Canada as real cars for the street, so much for American built.

yep in the old days they really were stock cars, modified to race. amc,olds.pontiac, ford, mercury, etc. off the assembly line, into a shop and made into a race car. now they could all come out of the same shop painted white, and if you didnt have a big decal telling you what it is, you couldnt tell. so where do i buy my fusion, or camry,or impala with rear drive and a push rod v.8.! stock car my ass! at least the s.c.c.a. still has some class!

I lost interest in NASCAR (The National Association for STOCK CAR Auto Racing) long ago. I LIKED it when I saw Richard Petty driving a PLYMOUTH! Freddy Lorenzen was driving a FORD, Junior Johnson was driving a CHEVY.

Today all the cars look alike. You can't tell one car from another. And Toyota is now made in the USA so why not? It'll just be another shapeless wind tunnel tested blob going 200 mph on the back straight.

What makes you think Toyota wants a piece of that?

What would their motivation be?

What makes you think Toyota wants a piece of that?

Toyota wants a piece of that or they wouldn't be shelling out the millions of dollars it takes to be competitive. Toyota is trying very hard in the U.S. to look like an American car company. That's why the Tundra is being built only in the U.S. (or even why there is a Tundra, a vehicle of that size being unnecessary in most other markets); it's why they're campaigning in NASCAR; it's why you see these "halo" ads about how great it is that a car company is putting thousands of Americans to work.

Don't get me wrong -- I like Toyota fine, though I find their cars competent but unengaging. But Toyota does very little without thinking hard about it and making sure they can execute. It may take them a try or two, but they likely will succeed. And, in a way, they have to. As Toyota has overtaken Chrysler and Ford in the "Big Three" and appear close to overtaking GM, they cannot afford a political/consumer backlash in their largest market. It is to their advantage to appear as homegrown as possible.

or at least as "home grown" as ford g.m. and chrysler. myself i think the americanzation of toyota will destroy the company, the same way it has the mediocre 3. when i bought a toyota truck a few years ago, i bought it because it was different from american brands, it was very small. now if i want a small truck, toyota,nissan,g.m.,dodge, forget it. its ford/mazda or nothing, and it sounds like the ranger is on its way out also.

The Ranger is history. I live not far from the plant Ford is closing. I know Ford neglected the Ranger to spend more money on the F Series and SUVs, but until you mentioned it, I hadn't realized that Chevy/GMC/Isuzu had killed off their small truck or that Nissan's and Dodge's were now "mid-sized" (as if anyone ever ordained how big a truck could be).

Well then there are a he%% of a lot of red necks then huh?