NEW YORK ¨C One year into its Nascar Sprint Cup experiment, Toyota took new driver Kyle Busch on a tour of its offices and plants. Not in Honshu or Hokkaido, but rather California, Texas and Kentucky.
¡°They showed us just how American the company is,¡± said Busch, who last week drove his No. 18 Camry to the Sprint Cup Series championship ¡ª the biggest victory for Busch in his 11- year racing career and the biggest Nascar achievement for Toyota Motor Corp., too.
For nine years the Japanese auto company has been delivering that same message to a much tougher audience, and Nascar fans are growing more receptive. Two out of three now say they¡¯d consider buying a Toyota, roughly on par with the sport¡¯s domestic sponsors like Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.¡¯s Chevrolet ¡ª and double the number who said they would when the carmaker joined the cup series in 2007. From 2011 to 2014, the company also saw its biggest market-share gains in Nascar¡¯s traditional strongholds, according to research firm IHS Automotive.
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