I particularly like how Toyota was able to cast an engine block that was 60 pounds lighter than the competition while staying within the rules and NASCAR forced them to add dead weight into the casting to make it the same weight as the domestic engine blocks currently in use. I hear they're going to transfer the knowledge they gained in this process into heavier and lower-quality castings across the the entire Toyota lineup.

*ps I know I focused on Toyota a bit too much, but I've found the whole process of building a Toyota stock car to be just slightly ridiculous. The most successful car company in the world building a dinosaur engine from the ground up to race in a series stuck in the past. At least the domestic guys had the excuse that they'd been doing it for a long time already.