Toyota Announces It’s Leaving the NHRA After 2025
The email received late last week from Toyota was just four paragraphs long, a compact way to end a partnership that has lasted over two decades. After the 2025 season, the company will end its support of NHRA drag racing, and of its Toyota-backed teams.
No reason was given, but you can believe that decisions like this are almost always about money. Toyota poured a lot of it into the sport, and not just by backing teams: Toyota is the Official Vehicle of the NHRA and has been since 2014, and the company provides Toyota trucks to the NHRA, resulting in a lot of on-air visibility.
It seemed like an unlikely marriage at the time—no one thinks that 12,000-horsepower Top Fuel and Funny Car partners use many Toyota parts in their racers, and just like when Toyota entered NASCAR in 2004, there was some grumbling that both NASCAR and the NHRA are uniquely American sports, and a Japanese company isn’t welcome. Toyota weathered that minor storm and has become a welcomed staple in both series.
Toyota first entered NHRA drag racing competition in 2002, backing Funny Car driver Gary Scelzi, and the company’s first victory came at the Winternationals two years later. Since then, Toyota has had over 200 race wins and 12 world championships, including back-to-back titles in Top Fuel with Doug Kalitta and Antron Brown. The company won its first Manufacturers Cup championship this year.
It’s valid for Toyota to claim wins in the NHRA, just as it is for Ford and Dodge/Mopar. Like those companies, Toyota provides teams with “engineering, technology and trackside support,” the company said.
“Our NHRA drag racing involvement has brought much success and pride across our entire organization,” said Paul Doleshal, group manager, motorsports, for Toyota Motor North America. “Our NHRA drivers and teams have truly become part of our Toyota family. We look forward to competing for more wins and championships with our supported teams in the upcoming season, and we will work diligently along the way to make sure each team and driver have the tools necessary to compete at the highest level for the years to come.”
Toyota’s driver lineup includes the current Top Fuel champ, and Toyota’s winningest driver, Antron Brown, as well as Justin Ashley, Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon and Steve and Billy Torrence in Top Fuel, and Funny Car competitors Ron Capps, Alexis DeJoria and J.R. Todd. It’s by far the largest manufacturer-supported driver roster in the NHRA.
Meanwhile, Ford backs Top Fuel driver Clay Millican, and naturally supports Bob Tasca III’s Funny Car, as Tasca and his family are longtime Ford dealers. Chevrolet stepped in years ago to support John Force Racing when Ford backed away, meaning you can find the Chevy bow tie on Brittany Force’s Top Fuel car, as well as the Funny Cars of Force and Austin Prock, who won eight races and the 2024 championship. Force himself, of course, ended his season early after a crash, leaving veteran Jack Beckman.
Dodge and Mopar back Tony Stewart Racing, with Stewart driving in Top Fuel, and Matt Hagan in a Funny Car. Cruz Pedregon, another Funny Car driver, gets some Dodge/Mopar backing.
Besides outright financial support, one of the biggest losses the departure of Toyota likely means to the NHRA is a ton of television visibility. Toyota airs a lot of TV commercials featuring the motorsports teams it backs, and drag racing has been a major part of that. Toyota has also stepped up to sponsor individual races, such as this year’s U.S. Nationals, which became the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. Ford was also the title sponsor of a race, the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas.
Certainly, the NHRA and the Toyota teams will be on the lookout for another manufacturer to join the sport, but at this point that seems like a difficult challenge—it seems more likely that Ford or Dodge and Mopar might try to absorb some of Toyota’s top teams, like Kalitta Motorsports, Antron Brown’s AB Motorsports, or Funny Car racer Ron Capps, whose Toyota Supra-bodied car has arguably been Toyota’s most visible partner. Like Capps’ NAPA Auto Parts-backed car, the majority of Toyota’s teams have individual business-related sponsors, and hopefully they aren’t going away.
The good news is that the NHRA and the teams have a year to scout new automotive partners. The bad news is that it likely won’t be easy.
I wasn’t all that surprised to hear Toyota was leaving the NHRA but it was a sudden announcement that few (if any) saw coming. Capps team for instance is relatively new and it seems like they may have had the rug pulled out from under them. Antron as well might feel like they were left in a lurch to some degree. Toyotas involvement in drag racing seemed somewhat contrary initially. However in terms of exposure it seems to have been something of a success. Obviously they don’t believe that exposure is being reflected in vehicle sales. Fair enough. Its hard to believe ( impossible) that any technologies developed in NHRA really benefit the manufacturers regardless of what is claimed. It is in many ways an antiquated sport.Still I enjoy it. When did ‘Toyota Gazoo ‘ show up on the rear wing of Haas Formula 1 cars?
I do wonder what the reason is for leaving. I wouldn’t have thought that NHRA and Toyota would be a thing that makes sense but it did work.
Very sad to see Toyota leaving the sport. TV time will for sure suffer. Certainly a business decision. Cash is king and Toyota must see a more critical use for their funds. Things are forever changing and it take cash to lead the way or even keep up to the ever developing market. Thanks Toyota for the investment in the NHRA…
Bye bye. Don’t let the door smack you in the butt on the way out.
I may be old fashioned, but for a manufacturer to have any real credibility in sponsoring a sport, (doing more than providing pit trucks and putting patches on racing suits), there needs to be some sort of technology transfer…they have to learn something from the sport.
I just don’t see it with Toyota.
It always seemed more of an advertising venue rather than tech-based.
I was around when “production cars” were raced in many series. Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.
In drag racing you could run down to your Chevrolet dealer and purchase a “62 BelAir 409 just like the one Hayden Proffit had. Or the “66 Nova, Grumpy’s Toy, Bill Jenkins pasted Mopar Hemi’s with.
Super Stock Eliminator was the class to win. Pro Stock arrived on the scene, and it’s gone to the point that decals identify the cars. Those are usually the sponsors we recognize and know from the program, not the car. The recent Camaro, Challenger and Mustang factory drag cars are the closeted to a factory competition car, but no legal for a trip to the drive-in for bragging rights.
Seems that it’s the same in every form of motorsport the word “parity” has replaced homologation, or minimum build numbers. Everybody has the same mousetrap.
Any manufacturer can throw cash at a sanctioning body and join the party. Hyundai, KIA, anybody, what happened to brand loyalty? Or even identity?
I’ve never seen a Toyota advertisement with a top fuel (or any other) drag car in it. I don’t see a lot of automotive magazines, so I’m sure I missed some, but most are off-road racers and a few NASCAR.