Even though nascar is hugely popular, and perceived to be growing, the suits there can see the upcoming handwriting on the wall. Empty seats in the stands have been a major worry. That is why some of the major markets like California and Texas are getting two dates, from the venues not able to fill seats. The television networks try to not focus or show the empty seats. High fuel costs and energy costs will eventually doom nascar if they dont make changes to attract our attention.
Hence the need to infuse new viewers, interest, and most importantly, money, with Toyota's entry into nascar. Its all for entertainment. The diehard Ford, Chevy, and Dodge fans, will get a huge charge out of their brand beating the Toyotas. But the also Toyota has to be legit/capable. Professional wrestling learned this years ago. You have the good guy wrestlers, and the bad guy "heel" wrestlers. Everyone wants the good to always win, but the "heel" has to win sometimes to be good competion for the good. Same case here. All for entertainment, and ticket sales and "TV rights" money. But there is no long standing actual benefit to be gained from any of this.
Nascar lost my support a few years ago due to the outrageous ticket price "packages", gouging motel operators, uncoordinated traffic flow creating 4-5 hour traffic waits, and the internal politics. Also, nascar technology is circa 1977, so nothing much can really apply to todays auto industry.
Formula one will be getting more of my attention with their recent announcement of approval to allow development of energy storage systems, to give a short term boost of power periodically during the race. Now thats technology that can be applied today, or tomorrow, to our automotive industry.
