Toyota enters NASCAR

As Toyota prepares to become the first Japanese manufacturer to enter the NASCAR Nextel Cup series at the Daytona 500 in February, the company's public-relations nightmare is personified by a balding 47-year-old man who lives in a Detroit suburb.

Bill Bagwell, dedicated NASCAR fan and a General Motors employee for 21 years, has started a Web site, fansagainstracingtoyotas.com, which has the unfortunate acronym of FART. Bagwell also markets a line of anti-Toyota T-shirts with messages like this: "Bud at a Cup race: $4. Winning the Cup: $6,000,000. Selling out to Toyota: Shameless!"

Bagwell showed up at the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Michigan International Speedway last August holding a "Hates Toyotas!" sign that plugged his Web site. During the telecast of Speed TV's "RaceDay" show, broadcast with a live audience behind the hosts and guests, Bagwell held up the sign until a commercial break, when a TV producer told him he had to leave. He argued freedom of speech until, he says, the producer-claiming, according to Bagwell, that "NASCAR was yelling into his headphones"-summoned security. He lowered his sign. The incident thus guaranteed Bagwell more publicity than he could've imagined, but still, he wonders: "What is NASCAR afraid of?"

It is, after all, just a comparatively inconsequential FART, judging from the traffic-or lack thereof-at Bagwell's Web site. But there's no argument that Toyota is concerned about its multi-million-dollar investment in NASCAR Nextel Cup, presently the exclusive domain of Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge. Arguably no car company is more sensitive about its public perception than Toyota, and there's no way to predict whether boos will outweigh cheers when the Toyota Camry takes to the track.

"What are they saying about it?" a Toyota executive more familiar with NASCAR than most wondered aloud. "You think Bubba will like us?"

February is a significant month for Toyota because, aside from the Nextel Cup debut, it's also the month that the all-new, much larger 2007 Tundra pickup hits dealers. By entering NASCAR's top division, Toyota knows there will be resistance. By entering the last frontier of the American automotive market that has remained uniquely American-badged-the genuine full-size pickup truck segment-they know they're risking an anti-Japanese brand backlash there, too.