Toyota’s Impact on NASCAR Continues to Expand

It started simple.

Toyota wanted to sell more trucks. Tundras, to be exact. So Toyota, an automotive manufacturing company based in Japan, searched throughout America for a new truck-hungry, car-proud audience. Soon, Toyota found NASCAR. The year was 2004. And NASCAR was changing.

NASCAR, historically a Southern sport steeped in tradition, allegiances and a go-for-broke attitude, was staring the start of the 21st Century straight in the face. Granted, tradition and allegiance worked fine for more than 50 years in NASCAR. But tradition and allegiance only go so far in a 24/7-streaming, wide-open, big-money, new world. NASCAR knew it had to change. So NASCAR went big. Madison Avenue-big. ESPN-big. Glossy photo- and pinup star-big.

And while NASCAR kept changing, Toyota wanted to change. So the flirtation began. NASCAR gave Toyota numbers. NASCAR said its audience came in somewhere around the 70 to 80 million-mark.

NASCAR, meet Toyota.

“We knew that the sport has always been about the drivers first, so that’s cool … that’s very cool,” said Les Unger, Toyota national motorsports manager for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. “And secondarily, that your [NASCAR] fan base was also among the most loyal to their drivers and/or to their team’s sponsors.

“We thought, ‘What can we do besides getting involved in a competitive level?’ ‘What can our objectives be for the company, over-and-above the competition side?’ We looked at the fan base and we said, ‘Hey. Here’s an opportunity for us to reach out and to have an opportunity to activate with, to get close to this very ferverent, very loyal fan base.’ ”

Toyota entered the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2004. In 2007, Toyota stepped up into the premier levels of the NASCAR world, fielding Sprint Cup and Busch Series – now known as Nationwide – teams.

Now, cut to Wednesday night.

Kyle Busch tamed and dominated Bristol Motor Speedway, a heaven of auto racing, in a Toyota Tundra. Busch turned tight corners, laid off the brakes and sailed. And Busch added yet another win to his already record-setting season, claiming first place in the Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly 200 at BMS.

Busch, 23, primed-and-ready for a me-first generation, possesses a NASCAR-record 17 wins this year. Eight of Busch’s victories have come in the Cup series, giving him a shot at breaking the record for the most Cup wins in the modern era, held by Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon at 13.

In just five years, Toyota has grown from a wide-eyed NASCAR newbie into a certified monster. And many feel that the monster has only begun to show its teeth.

America vs. Japan

Kyle Busch is loved. He’s hated. Busch is the new Dale Earnhardt. Busch is the new Jeff Gordon. Busch is a rebel. A corporate product. Busch, to many, represents everything that is wrong with the modern world of NASCAR. To others, Busch can – and will – save NASCAR. And Busch drives a Toyota.

For years, NASCAR was an American sport, built with the hands of American workers and raced in American cars. General Motors. Ford. Chevrolet. Big, staggering, powerful American names.

Things have changed.

“Last year [in NASCAR] … there was the absence of a bad guy, with all of these legends retiring, with no manufacture’s battle – it was sort of a [Chevrolet] show – and with a couple all-American boys battling for the [Cup] title … my goodness; it’s a wonder people watched at all,” ESPN NASCAR commentator Dr. Jerry Punch said. “Well, now, this year, here comes Toyota.”

And Toyota has dominated.

A year removed from fumbling and stumbling through a 2007 Cup season that left many predicting a quick, dishonorable, one-and-done exit from the series, Toyota has swept through NASCAR with a fury. And it’s not just Busch waving the flag. Toyota’s young, dynamic roster currently includes Denny Hamlin, Brian Vickers, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Dave Blaney.

How loaded is Toyota?

Loaded enough to let two-time Cup winner Tony Stewart walk. And loaded enough to have star-in-the-making Joey Logano, an 18-year-old Nationwide Series driver, waiting in the wings.

“I think [Toyota’s success has] been unbelievable.  I shouldn’t say unbelievable, because you expect that kind of success from Toyota. Everything that they’ve been a part of, they’ve been successful,” Stewart said in an e-mail interview. “We knew going into the Daytona 500 [this year] that we had a shot to win, and the proof of that was leading when we crossed the start-finish line with one to go. It’s been impressive. The [Toyota Racing Development] group and everybody with Toyota has put their nose to the ground and worked really, really hard to be successful at every level of NASCAR right now.”

According to Punch, the fact that Toyota has skyrocketed while Ford and Chevrolet have sputtered is no coincidence, either.

Punch says NASCAR is still finding its place in the big, cluttered sports world, following an awkward transition period throughout the 1990s. NASCAR went for the big-money grab, leaving behind its history, foundation and grounding. Then, in the early part of the 21st Century, NASCAR flirted with maximum media exposure and the Car of Tomorrow. This year, NASCAR proclaimed a back-to-basics. But the door was left wide-open for a new, foreign face.

“It’s a bit of an equilibriation period with NASCAR. You’ve had some of the legendary drivers [retire] or [be] in the process of retiring or walking away. … We lost Dale Earnhardt Sr. … Rusty Wallace is gone, Dale Jarrett is gone, Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd; all the names that people grew up watching ,” Punch said. “And then, one of the things that NASCAR was built on was great rivalries in the sport. And you really didn’t have a good guy and a bad guy [in the last few years]. … You didn’t have a guy that could just intimidate the field, like Dale Earnhardt Sr. could.”

Now, the rivalries have returned to NASCAR. And it’s Toyota vs. the rest.

Meanwhile, Busch, with his what-me-worry? attitude and 17 NASCAR wins on the season, is the new intimidator. And NASCAR’s new intimidator doesn’t drive a Ford or a Chevy.

He drives a Toyota.

“It’s great that we’ve had the success that we’ve had this year being in a Toyota,” Busch said in an e-mail interview. “The affiliation that we have at Joe Gibbs Racing with the Toyota brand is something that NASCAR has brought into the sport that we’ve been able to use to our advantage and win some races with.”

Big Wave

To understand Toyota’s new place in NASCAR, the best place to look is Joe Gibbs Racing.

JGR ran strong cars and strong teams in the past, winning three Cup championships, and has been a part of NASCAR since 1991. But a past affiliation with General Motors left Joe Gibbs Racing sharing food at the table. And JGR President J.D. Gibbs knew a better home waited.

“It was a hard decision for us [to leave GM]. We’d been with GM for a long time,” Gibbs said. “The Toyota opportunity gave us the opportunity to have a leadership role with some other good teams. And really, for Joe Gibbs Racing, it came down to what was best for our 440 families that I represent here and that work here. We just felt it was the best decision long-term for us and for our families here and our future.”

Judging by the manner in which Busch and his Toyota comrades have dominated NASCAR this season, Gibbs’ decision was right on target.

Toyota currently sits in first place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup manufacturer standings with 149 points, leaving Ford, Chevy and Dodge in the dust. Toyota also leads in total Sprint Cup wins with nine, four more than Ford and Chevy.

In addition, the JGR-owned No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry driven by Busch holds a commanding lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup owner standings with 3,429 points, 222 ahead of the
Jack Roush-owned No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion driven by Carl Edwards. And Joe Gibbs Racing/Busch also top the owner standings with 14 top-five finishes and 15 top-10 placings this season.

NASCAR in 2008 has been all-Toyota, all-the-time.

Which leaves some analysts and fans wondering where a NASCAR dominated by a foreign auto manufacturer goes from here.What happens to the NASCAR of the South? What happens to a sport when it no longer bears any resemblance to its past?

“Toyota is perceived as the bad guy, they’re coming in from a foreign manufacturer – although many of their cars are made in this country,” Punch said.

“The king of the hill is Kyle Busch and Toyota. And I perceive, maybe the only thing that could ever rally the General Motors, the Ford, the Chrysler fans together, is they want somebody to gang up and beat that Toyota.”

A New Dynasty

The morning of Aug. 21. Two days before the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Bristol, Tenn., and BMS are the heart of NASCAR country. To fans, Bristol is racing done right. It’s where racers come to race. It’s where drivers are made. And its where frauds are exposed. Fifty-three straight Cup Series sellouts prove the point.

On the morning of Aug. 21, the sun shines bright and the air is cool and breezy. Vendors set up along Volunteer Parkway. A legion of devoted NASCAR fans walk up and down the street. Less than a mile away, the grandstands inside Bristol Motor Speedway are expected to soon fill up 160,000 strong, while the campgrounds will thicken with trailers and the traffic will stop for miles.

And two days before race day, a deep-red, sparkling Toyota Tundra spins high in the air and rotates for all eyes to see at the main entrance to the merchandise-laden NASCAR fan zone.

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