Traditionalists have feared the invasion from Japan for years. Ford and DaimlerChrysler already know what it’s like to race against Toyota in the marketplace, both falling behind the car giant in worldwide sales. General Motors could fall as the world’s No. 1 automaker later this year - at about the same time everyone, including Toyota, expects to start winning in NASCAR. Toyota already has sent shock waves through the sport without turning a single official lap. The car company not only brings a distinguished background in racing, it brings a unique business model that could change the sport. To some, it represents a threat in the way NASCAR has done business since its first lap in 1949.

“Toyota always looks for the next challenge,” said Andy Graves, the company’s Nextel Cup Series program director. “We know, realistically, we have to earn our stripes. It’s going to take a little while, but we’re going to get there.”

Toyota, through its racing division called Toyota Racing Development, has been racing in the U.S. for 25 years. TRD not only has won in every form of racing, it’s also dominated with championships in IMSA sports cars, Indy Cars, Grand Am Sports Cars and the Craftsman Truck series. Nextel Cup is the last, and biggest, challenge. The company will start with eight Camrys at Daytona and a pair of Busch Series cars. It came to the truck series three years ago and quickly asserted itself as the front-runner, going from four wins in 2004 to nine in 2005 to 12 and a championship a year ago.

In 2006, the top six drivers in the point standings were in Toyotas. Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge used to pump a lot of money and engineering support into the truck series, but all three backed off once TRD changed the rules. Toyota teams all get their engines, trucks and technical support from TRD, turning competitors into teammates. By concentrating their money and research into one department, Toyota became a massive operation that could outspend any of the single teams. Nextel Cup teams will be responsible for building their own cars, but TRD again will be a clearinghouse for engines and technical support.

The U.S. car companies provide technical information learned by its engineers, but it rarely shares information learned by other teams. At General Motors, for example, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing each have separate engine shops and engineering staffs. They don’t share their competitive secrets. The Toyota teams don’t have to worry about engines, and the engineering staffs compare notes.

“The reason I switched [from Dodge] is simple: TRD,” said car owner Bill Davis. ” It’s a racing company. It’s not a manufacturing company that has engineers that dabble in racing. It’s a race-driven, 200-people company that races. That’s what puts them above everybody else.”

TRD has the rest of the sport running scared.

Toyota still is blamed for the downfall of the IMSA sports car series. Dan Gurney prepared two GT Prototypes in 1989, and by 1993 it was so dominant it chased away most of the competition. In 1993, Gurney’s cars, which reportedly had a $38 million budget, won 17 consecutive races. It convinced other manufacturers to leave the sport. TRD returned to racing with its Lexus prototype engine in the Grand Am Sports Car Series three years ago. Car owner Chip Ganassi won the championship in 2004 with a Lexus engine, then won the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Ganassi won the car owner’s championship again last year after winning 5 of 17 races. He also owns three cars in the Nextel Cup Series, but has remained loyal to Dodge for the 2007 campaign.

More at Jacksonville.com