Toyota to start Nascar truck team
By Alex Frew McMillan
CNN Hong Kong
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Toyota is promoting its trucks heavily in the United States and is building a new plant in Texas
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TOKYO, Japan -- Toyota Motor Corp. will field a team in Nascar's pickup truck-racing division in 2004, according to a report.
Japan's largest carmaker would be the first Japanese auto company to field a team in Nascar. The pickup truck division is a secondary circuit behind the headline stock car races.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Wednesday that company sources say Toyota will field a team racing its Tundra truck in Nascar.
But the Tundra, which has a 4.7-liter engine, will have to have a special engine constructed for racing, the Nikkei stated, because the trucks in the Nascar circuit have 5.8-liter V8 engines.
Toyota said earlier this month that it will spend $800 million to build an assembly plant in San Antonio, Texas, that will produce 150,000 Tundra light trucks a year. (Full story)
Japanese carmakers are pushing into the highly profitable U.S. truck market, with Honda Motor doubling capacity at its U.S. truck plant and Nissan starting to make trucks in Mississippi this year.
