Full Throttle

Dale Jarrett recently pointed out during NASCAR’s media tour the Camry he chauffeurs this year is the only American made marquee in NEXTEL Cup and noted over 30,000 Americans have chosen employment in Toyota factories around the country.

When employment at support facilities and it’s dealership network are added to the total the number stretches over 150,000.

There is another side to this issue, the effect Toyota’s expanded operations have had on the local economy of North Carolina, specifically Rowen County, NC.

UNC-Charlotte economics professor John Connaughton has studied the issue and has reported the impact the racing industry has had on the state. For example, last year, according to one study by Connaughton, motorsports had a $5.9 billion impact on the state economy and directly or indirectly employed more than 27,000 workers.

Connaughton believes Toyota’s presence in the area will significantly increase those numbers through it’s expansion plans and as other high tech companies are drawn to the area to provide services Toyota can’t provide themselves.

This article is very long. I don’t normally reprint something this detailed, but given how some sources make online article disappear into the memory hole or behind a per-per-view curtain - and I want this piece archived for future use - it’s posted in its entirety, hit the “more” link to access it.

But, before you hit that link I have one question. Has anyone heard any of the Toy-Haters and xenophobes point their finger at Roger Penske?

He races Dodge products, why single Penske racing out for scorn you ask.

The vast majority of Penske auto dealerships sell Toyotas. He’s gotten very rich doing so. A valid argument can be made without the infusion of cash by Toyota in the U.S. market and those that buy their products he might have less resources to operate with, or worse case, not even be in NASCAR.

And BTW, that fact also lays to waste any argument over Dale Jarrett’s move to Toyota because he’s has several Ford Dealerships. The newly minted Jarrett haters need to find something else to whine about.

When it comes to Toyota Racing Development setting up shop in Rowan County as it does battle in NASCAR’s premier stock-car series, we can talk about potential spinoff racing enterprises, about boosting the local tax base, about NASCAR’s vertical integration and global expansion and about landing a big economic-development fish that may lure other go-fast enterprises the way a great white shark attracts remora.

But when UNC-Charlotte economics professor John Connaughton considers the possibilities as sushi meets pulled pork off Peach Orchard Road, he homes in on two key areas, “two really critical intangibles.”

First, he notes, consider jobs. Not the number of jobs, which initially will primarily be filled by people already working with TRD, but the kind of highly specialized jobs required for a racing chassis engineering shop. Put aside any notion that the people who engineer and fine-tune NASCAR racers bear much relation to the guy who diagnoses the check-engine light on your Camry or changes the timing belt on your Accord. They more closely resemble the crews calibrating boost and re-entry specs for a shuttle mission. This is a sport where car builders and team crews obsess over shaving a few hundredths of a second off lap times, where they toss around terms like “kinematics” and “g-force loads” and “compliance” in the same way that baseball managers talk about slugging percentages and ERAs.

“This industry provides incredibly high-quality jobs,” Connaughton says. “You’re not just getting jobs, but very good jobs. Any presence of racing in the county will help attract more of those jobs.”

Secondly, he notes, and perhaps even more importantly, is the geography involved: “This is not to be overlooked