Toyota to enter Nextel Cup and Busch in 2007

By MIKE HARRIS, AP Motorsports Writer

January 23, 2006

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Toyota is planning to move up to NASCAR's top two stock car series and not everybody is happy about it.

The Japanese automaker, which has competed in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series the past two seasons, announced Monday it will also run its Camry brand in both the Nextel Cup and Busch Series in 2007.

NASCAR chairman Brian France gave his blessing to Toyota, telling more than 200 reporters taking part in the first day of the annual preseason media tour ``Toyota has proven in the truck series it can be a great partner. NASCAR offered them the best opportunity to build their presence in racing in North America and we're glad they are here.'

Toyota will become the first foreign competitor in NASCAR's top series since Jaguar ran in several races in the 1950s.

Team owner Jack Roush, who runs cars in each of the three top NASCAR series and whose drivers have won two of the last three Cup titles, offered a warning about Toyota's move up.

"If NASCAR manages to get in front of Toyota and tell them what they want to do and enforce it, they'll be the first sanctioning body that ever did that,' said Roush, whose team runs Fords. ``I'll watch with some interest, I'd like to say from a safe distance, but my distance is not far enough to be safe.'

Toyota, which is becoming increasingly successful in the U.S. even as General Motors and Ford struggle, has previously been involved in American sports car racing and open-wheel racing. The company has been known in the past for inflating the cost of racing with its free spending, sometimes dominating the series and having a major effect on the rules before leaving for greener pastures.

In the truck series, Toyota brought in a costly factory team approach, making quick inroads by producing the engines and chassis for all of its teams.

Toyota official Dave Illingworth said that will not be the case in Cup and Busch.

"There will be no Toyota branded teams or cars,' he said. ``Teams will bring their own sponsorship and we will provide only technical support, much as the other manufacturers in those series have done in the past.'

France said he believes Toyota, which will also continue to compete in trucks, will approach the Cup and Busch in the proper way.

"They recognize that (centralizing their teams) wasn't how NASCAR (works) and wasn't going to be in their best interest in the future,' France said.

Roush hopes that is the way it really works out once Toyota becomes established in Cup and Busch.

"But they operated their truck teams as one program and made the team owners just name owners only in order to justify what they were doing,' he said. ``But they have the same cars and the same engines and the same technology and wound up ruling that thing with pretty much of an iron hand.

"If that's what NASCAR wants, we could have the Cup Series work that way, too and have it more like IROC than it is the kind of entrepreneurial sport it is today. But I don't think that's where it will go. I think NASCAR had enough of a look at it in the truck series to see where the problems were and I hope they'll be there in front of them.'

No teams or drivers were named Monday by Toyota, but the company is expected to announced Tuesday at least part of its lineup. Bill Davis Racing and a new team co-owned by Michael Waltrip and Doug Bawel, president of Jasper Engines, are expected to be among those named.

But Greg Biffle, who drives for Roush and finished second to 2005 Cup champion Tony Stewart, doesn't care who Toyota aligns with.

"It doesn't bother me any,' he said. "It's free enterprise. C'mon, bring your best stuff.'