I originally wrote the following as a sidebar to a “Dodge Wins Daytona 500″ story for Mopar Action magazine earlier this year. It was not published, however. The car in the photo, in case you can’t tell by the decal tail lights, is a “Camry.”
All American Racers … Sort of.
When Toyota clinched its first Sprint Cup race in March (Kobalt Tools 500 in Atlanta), NASCAR touted it as the first victory by a “foreign manufacturer” in NASCAR’s top series since June 13, 1954, when Al Keller drove a Jaguar to victory at Linden Airport in New Jersey. That was NASCAR’s first road race, and the Jags were the XK-120 sports cars.
On that day in New Jersey, Jags took four of the top six positions. Jaguar would in the late 1980s be adopted by an American parent, Ford, which this year pawned off the money-losing stepchild to India’s Tata. And to be nitpicky, any win by Dodge between its 2001 NASCAR return and the 2007 season was essentially by a “foreign manufacturer” – DaimlerChrysler. Remember, when Dodge returned to NASCAR, it was that mustachioed German “Dr. Z” guy doing a lot of the talking.
When Toyota decided to enter NASCAR racing, first in truck and then in the Sprint Car series, some fans were aghast. A Japanese brand in NASCAR? Ah, but this is 2008, not 1968. So, what does citizenship really mean in the world of NASCAR?
Consider the Sprint Cup’s four competing brands: Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota. Chevy uses the “Impala SS” name on its NASCAR entry; the Dodge sprint car carries the “Charger” decal; Ford emblazons its Car of Tomorrow with the “Fusion” moniker, and Toyota uses Camry. In the real world, that would be two full-sizers (Charger and Impala) against two midsizers. All are four-doors, but among the four, the Charger and Impala offer the only V8s in the showroom, and the Charger is the only rear-drive production car in the series. In NASCAR, though, it’s all the same. Ford opened that door (or more accurately, four doors) when it petitioned NASCAR to allow the Taurus body a decade ago.
Citizenship lines get a little blurry in the real world of auto sales, too. The Dodge Charger has lots of stamps on its passport: it was born of a German-owned Chrysler entity, with plenty of Mercedes-Benz engineering throughout. The car is assembled in Canada, and its optional Hemi comes from a plant in Mexico. The German-designed 5-speed auto tranny is an older Mercedes-designed piece now made in the U.S.
Also hailing from Mexico is the Ford Fusion, a Mazda-based model with more Japanese DNA between its bumpers than the Charger has German, including its base 4-cylinder engine. Somewhat ironically, the Mazda 6 model on which the Fusion is based is built here in the U.S. in the same assembly plant as the unrelated Mustang.
The “baseball, hotdogs and apple pie” Impala also comes from that friendly foreign country to the north. So, of the four models represented in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, the only model built in the U.S., including its U.S.-built powertrains, is, ta da … the Toyota Camry.
