Fans cringed and teams shuddered when NASCAR opened its doors to Toyota, the first foreign automaker to enter a sport built around American cars.

Competitors feared that a deep-pocketed company with its free spending and technological savvy would run wild over the loyal supporters of Detroit's Big Three manufacturers. Longtime fans simply couldn't stomach a Japanese car racing side by side against their red, white and blue models.

It now has been five years since Toyota eased into NASCAR in the third-tier Truck Series -- three since the automaker graduated into the premier Sprint Cup Series -- and a foreign brand didn't bring the sport to a halt. Nor did it ruin the racing. If anything, it has improved both the competition and overall health of the industry.

Now, NASCAR says it is willing to consider other foreign automakers. BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz have manufacturing plants inside the United States -- the same criteria Toyota met when NASCAR accepted the automaker into NASCAR in 2002 -- and Volkswagen is building a facility in Tennessee. Any of those manufacturers can approach NASCAR about coming on board, and chairman Brian France is apparently willing to listen.

"We're the pre-eminent place in North America for car manufacturers to build their business with an auto racing group," France said. "... Clearly there's some companies that are going to look at opportunities that may not have even been there in the past that could be presented in the future."

That his comments came at Michigan Speedway -- a short drive from the home offices of Ford, GM and Dodge -- probably didn't sit well with those in NASCAR.

Goodyear appears to have resolved some of the problems that plagued the Allstate 400 last year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. During the race a year ago, tire problems forced race officials to call competition cautions every 10-12 laps.