Toyota breaks through with first NASCAR manufacturer’s championship – USA TODAY
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USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Gluck weighs in from Homestead on the wild finish in the 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup.
USA TODAY Sports
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Busch’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship didn’t go unnoticed Sunday night, but another first championship didn’t get quite as much attention.
With Busch’s victory and championship in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Toyota secured its first Cup title since joining the sport in 2007. After Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing captured Toyota’s first manufacturer’s championship in its ninth season in NASCAR, Toyota officials vowed to keep trying for more.
“We used to have the reputation that we would bring a lot of money, win, and then be gone,” Toyota national motorsports marketing manager Isaka Kanazawa told USA TODAY Sports. “But we wanted to change that. The bosses told us that we couldn’t spend too much money. We needed to continue forward with a smaller amount of money over a longer period of time. We took that approach here.”
Toyota’s move from IndyCar to NASCAR was a major shift in the face of motorsports in the United States, and it didn’t come without controversy. Toyota was the the first foreign-based engine manufacturer in a staunchly American form of racing, but its leaders — with increasing auto and truck sales and an expanding U.S. manufacturing base — saw the marketing possibilities.
“We looked at what was best for us in the U.S., and we found that NASCAR was very good at marketing,” Kanazawa said. “We design the cars here in the U.S.A., we assemble the cars here in the U.S.A., and we sell the cars here in the U.S.A. We think this is our responsibility — to be active in the American automotive industry. That is our motivation to continue.”
Toyota has been involved in motorsports since the early 1970s, including stints in Formula One, IndyCar and various forms of sports car and rally racing. Currently, its major American involvements are with NASCAR and NHRA.
In the past, Kanazawa was part of Toyota’s Formula One, World Endurance Challenge and IndyCar programs. On Sunday, he celebrated the weekend’s second championship for Toyota, which claimed the Camping World Truck Series title Friday night with Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Erik Jones.
“I love it here,” Kanazawa said. “I can feel that this is a part of our family.”
PHOTOS: Highlights from the 2015 Chase for the Sprint Cup
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