"Even though these Japanese companies-Toyota in particular-may have factories in the United States that use American workers," Roush says, "it's Japanese capital and the returns on the investment and all those things that wind up building the economy and building the country and building companies-all of that winds up serving an overseas interest and not our own.
"There will be a significant backlash between fans who will say Toyota shouldn't be here because it's bad for our economy and feel like myself, who are more nationalistic than some of our population and some of our fans."
Picking TeamsFor team owners and other manufacturers, the addition of a fourth entry in the Truck Series manufacturer's championship means a smaller share of the starting grid for everyone on race day. For NASCAR, Toyota is expected to bring along a generous budget to sponsor events and market its involvement in the series.
Seven-time Winston Cup champion Richard Petty says the benefits of Toyota's involvement will be difficult to determine. "It will change stuff and make the Big Three look different," Petty says. "When they (Toyota) come in, they're going to bring some money."
A garage insider said in February 2003 that Toyota's pending entry into the Truck Series already was being used by some teams as a bargaining chip to get American manufacturers to increase support in 2004.
"We've had a lot of interest from existing teams, drivers, crew chiefs, and other people who want to start a team," says Aust.
Toyota hopes to have six trucks running next season, in three two-truck teams. "We think we can learn a lot more in two-truck operations," Aust says. "There is a much greater opportunity to share information."
TRD may go beyond six trucks "but we don't want to expand beyond our reach...when you do that, you get into trouble," Aust says. "We want to field teams that will provide us with the opportunity to win races.
"We want to match ourselves with teams that have the same goals, which will bring us drivers who want to be in this series, and who don't look at the series as a short stint and a step to move up. We are looking for teams who will be involved with us for some time."
Learning From The PastToyota has a reputation, deserved or not, of putting itself in the position to crush the competition. Winning isn't the goal; domination is. The company has won in sports cars, stock cars, open wheel racing, and even at Pikes Peak.
"We don't think we do things differently. All teams want to be as competitive as they can," Aust says. "It may be we are more methodical. But we aren't coming into this series to run in second or third place. No one comes into racing with that approach."
Don't expect the victory steamroller to take long to get up to speed. That's what happened when Toyota began in CART in the 1990s, and it won't repeat its mistakes.
Toyota entered CART on a limited budget and without a strong American support base to work with engine designers in Japan. For the first few years, the system produced the little engine that couldn't. Couldn't make enough power. Couldn't last the full race. Couldn't compete with the likes of Ford, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz.
It all came to a head at the 1997 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, when the performance of the Toyota powerplant was just shy of an embarrassment to company officials visiting from Japan.
Leading The ChargeThe answer was to hire Lee White to take over Toyota Racing Development's CART program. White, 56, is a no-compromises taskmaster who has been the architect behind more than 20 national championships in 30 years of sports car and open wheel racing. His rsum includes the overall win in the 1994 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona and six consecutive GTS-class victories (1986-1991) at the Daytona endurance race, plus being named 1990 IMSA Crew Chief of the Year.