Toyota already ruffling feathers

CONCORD, N.C. - The fallout from Toyota's plans to enter the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch series continued this week, with car owners openly questioning the way the car company does business.

Jack Roush and Ray Evernham both said Toyota raised the cost of doing business in the Craftsman Truck Series, so they wondered if it will do the same once it expands to stock cars next year.

"In the truck series, we got some knocks last year for having the most competitors in a series, but based on the way they did the truck series we were second to Toyota, even though we didn't have the breadth or the depth economically that they did," Roush said.

"... they have the same cars and the same engines and the same technology and wound up ruling that thing with pretty much of an iron hand. If that's what NASCAR wants, we could have the Cup Series work that way too."

Toyota helped drive the International Motor Sports Association into the ground 13 years ago when the company spent more than $30 million on two sports cars - more money that its competition combined.

Toyota's news couldn't come at a worse time for fans of the tradition American-made sedans used in NASCAR. Ford announced it was eliminating as many as 30,000 jobs in North America and DaimlerChrysler said it will cut 6,000 jobs.

WALTRIP BUYS INSURANCE: Michael Waltrip Racing joined with Doug Bawel this week to create Waltrip-Jasper Motorsports for the upcoming season.

Bawel used to own a piece of the No. 77 Dodge driven by Travis Kvapil, but that team shut down after Kodak withdrew its support.

By adding Bawel, Waltrip put himself in position to use Bawel's position in last year's car owner standings. The top-35 teams get automatic entries into the starting lineup, so Waltrip essentially was buying insurance.

EDWARDS OUT OF IROC: When Carl Edwards accepted his invitation into the International Race of Champions, he forgot to check his schedule. Once he did, he realized he couldn't be in two places at the same time.

Edwards is scheduled to race in a Busch Series race in Memphis, Tenn., on Oct. 28 - the same day IROC wraps up its four-race series at Atlanta.

With Edwards withdrawing from IROC, fellow Nextel Cup Series driver Ryan Newman moved into the all-star series that pits drivers from several racing organizations against each other.