It becomes official, (NASCAR related) *UPDATE* 1/25/06

[Ponch ®]

I just got this bit of news........

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Michael Waltrip has twice won the Great American Race. Now he'll be a pioneer in NASCAR's great Japanese experiment. A two-time Daytona 500 winner, Waltrip will own and drive for one of three teams that plan to field Toyota Camrys in NASCAR's top series starting in 2007. The other teams to run the series' first foreign cars in a half-century are Bill Davis Racing, a veteran of Cup competition, and Team Red Bull, already a big player in motorsports but a newcomer to NASCAR. All three will field two Camry drivers in the 2007 Nextel Cup series, Toyota officials announced Tuesday night. The Japanese auto maker is the first foreign manufacturer to supply cars for America's top stock car series since Jaguar ran in several races in the 1950s. Waltrip currently drives for Bill Davis racing, which will have to replace him after the upcoming season. The team's other driver, Dave Blaney, is slated to drive the Toyota in 2007.

Michael Waltrip and Bill Davis?

I wouldnt worry about Toyota kicking anyone's ass anytime soon 

[Mike DC]

Interesting thread guys.
Here's my two cents.  It might be offensive to some but it's only my opinion.

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--  Toyota assembling cars in America:
These days the cost of actually assembling a car is often less than 20% of its total cost.  At least 60% of the cost is engineering, and that's all going to Japan.  These Japanse cars are still essentially foreign products.  But it turns out all they have to do is let us assemble the cars here, and the P.R. problem will significantly dissipate. Giving us the assembly is a minor consolation prize for the major engineering dollars lost, and it's a very sweet deal for the Japs.

--  Toyota in NASCAR:
I don't really care.  DCX is German, GM is virtually dead (for reasons that are entirely its own fault), and Ford's survival depends on the global market as much as it does America.  The auto industry is global now.  The American isolationist mindset is partly why Toyota has been mopping the floor with Detriot's brands for the last couple decades.  If they'd taken Toyota seriously in 1975 instead of laughing at them, Detriot might not be in this position now.  The barn door is open.  If NASCAR actually did make a decision to exclude Toyota at this point, it would be hopeless flag-waving nationalism that's decades behind the rest of the culture.

--  Template NASCARs:
I would care, except that they're no longer racing anything related to actual cars as it is.  They've already been racing template cars for years, they've just been having to make three different ones.  Cutting links with production cars doesn't bother me anymore because all the significant links were cut decades ago.

.

[my73charger]

It just doesnt sit well with me. To me, Nascar should only be our root history manufacturers....You know....the big three.

If Toyota and Honda want to get into stock car racing....Let um start there own version of Nascar.

I tell you one thing. As a diehard Nascar fan. You will never see me up in the stands chearing for a Toyota or Honda car. No matter whos driving it.

I just don't like um and I will never own one ever again.

Sorry if you don't agree but it's just how I feel about this. Only an opinion.
   

I am with you on this one.  Nascar continues to stink it up in my opinion.

[Shakey]

Japmobile - I have read many of your posts Vain and I never figured you'd use a word like that.  You live in Southern California not Southern Mississippi - correct?

Shakey, I hope you realize how stupidly ironic this statement is.  Let me rephrase.

"Look, everyone, at how tolerant I am.  Not like those wastes of life from Mississippi - they're all trash."


And for what it's worth, my family home is 100 miles from Mississippi - southern Mississippi, in fact.

I guess I was wrong then!   

[greenpigs]

Is it over yet?

[Johnny SixPack]

Is it over yet?

Nope, let's see who else we can slander due to their geographic location at birth, and based solely on idiotic media stereotypes, eh! 

So take off you green warty hoser!

Oh, and what's this Nascar thing?

Do I have to chew and sleep with my cousin to get involved?

Cause she's hot, and I really like Skoal Long Cut Mint.

[Lowprofile]

Is it over yet?

Nope, let's see who else we can slander due to their geographic location at birth, and based solely on idiotic media stereotypes, eh! 

So take off you green warty hoser!

Oh, and what's this Nascar thing?

Do I have to chew and sleep with my cousin to get involved?

Cause she's hot, and I really like Skoal Long Cut Mint.

Now, that there is funny y'all! 

That being said, the "Golden Days" of NASCAR have long since passed us by.  Let them race schoolbuses & lawnmowers for all I care. 

[Ghoste]

... the "Golden Days" of NASCAR have long since passed us by.  Let them race schoolbuses & lawnmowers for all I care.

That was the truest statement on the entire issue.