* Toyota teams
do not seem to have a problem building both the car of today and the car of tomorrow.
* And possibly
the most telling—the NASCAR brass does not seem worried at all. As can been seen by the closing of the short tracks
for the (yawn) one and a half milers, they like the color green, wherever it originates.
As I have mentioned before,
the cars in my driveway are all US built, and with one exception
(a Volvo that an ex-wife insisted upon - and I miss neither of them!), always have been.
However, GM has gone from being
a near monopoly to building vehicles that are not worth owning - Corvettes and trucks being the only exceptions. Ford is selling
off (heavy sigh) Aston Martin and reportedly lost over $2000 on every vehicle built last year, and Chrysler, well; they are
building better cars, but are already owned by Daimler Benz. Hopefully the coming Camaro and Challenger will join the Mustang
in reconnecting the US industry with their roots and they
can combine today’s muscle cars with the quality of the imports.
In the meantime, Toyota
is not building anything that has 500 horsepower, but what they are building are well built front wheel drive vehicles that
people worldwide seem to prefer. It is hard to fault them for that.
Jack Roush in two short years
has gone from repeatedly saying that NASCAR was out to get him specifically by limiting the number of teams that he has to
now working himself into a frenzy regarding the “war” that theoretically Toyota has brought to him, and is trying
desperately to sell part of his team to the Fenway Sports Group, that is part owner of the Red Sox, among other holdings.
The Petty’s and the Wood Brothers might find Jack’s concerns just a bit ironic.
2006 StockCar Review.
