HPD was founded to consolidate Honda's North American racing engineering capabilities in one dedicated facility. Unlike Honda's Japanese racing divisions, HPD was structured to operate within American racing's commercial and regulatory environment, eventually developing and manufacturing engines entirely outside Japan for the first time in Honda's racing history. In September 2023, the company was renamed Honda Racing Corporation USA as Honda looked to strengthen global motorsport collaboration under the unified HRC banner.
HPD debuted in the CART IndyCar World Series as a works engine manufacturer in 1994. After scoring its first podium at Toronto in its debut season, HPD claimed its first victory at New Hampshire in 1995. The 1996 season marked a breakthrough: 11 wins from 16 races delivered HPD's first manufacturers' and drivers' championships. The company then sustained a six-year run of consecutive drivers' championships, winning in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 alongside manufacturers' titles in 1998, 1999, and 2001.
In 2003, HPD moved its primary focus to the rival IRL IndyCar Series. The transition was immediate and dominant: in 2004 Honda-powered cars won 14 of 16 races, including the Indianapolis 500, and claimed both the manufacturers' and drivers' championships. The 2005 season was similarly strong, with a second Indianapolis 500 victory and 12 total race wins securing another sweep of the season titles.
From 2006 to 2011, HPD was the sole engine manufacturer of the IndyCar Series, supplying all teams including the Indianapolis 500 field. This period of exclusive supply coincided with remarkable reliability: for the first six times in Indianapolis 500 history no engine failures occurred in the race, and the entire 2008, 2010, and 2011 seasons passed without a single race-related engine failure across the field.
When manufacturer competition returned to IndyCar in 2012, HPD introduced a turbocharged V6 engine to compete against Chevrolet. Since then, Honda-powered cars have won the Indianapolis 500 in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025, the IndyCar drivers' championship in 2013, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025, and the manufacturers' championship in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2025.
In 2006, Honda announced through its Acura brand a Le Mans Prototype program for the American Le Mans Series, entering the LMP2 class in 2007 with the Acura ARX-01a. The car used a chassis developed from Courage components paired with a new 3.4-liter V8, the ARX-01's engine marked the first V8 badged as an Acura and the first Honda racing engine built entirely outside Japan. The architecture shared similarities with the IRL engine though none of the parts were interchangeable.
In 2010, Honda rebranded the prototype program under the HPD name directly, with the car redesignated as the HPD ARX-01. The prototype lineup expanded through successive generations — the ARX-02, ARX-03, ARX-04b — and for 2012 HPD chose to become a chassis and engine provider rather than maintaining a works sportscar team, supplying customer operations across the ALMS and World Endurance Championship including in the LMP1 class at Le Mans and in the FIA WEC.
For the IMSA SportsCar Championship era, HPD returned with the ARX-05 Daytona Prototype International in 2018, supplying factory-supported Acura customer programs including Team Penske.
HPD's sustained success across CART, IRL, and IndyCar constitutes one of the most complete records of any engine manufacturer in American open-wheel racing history. The six consecutive drivers' championships in CART from 1996 to 2001 and the dominant 2004–2005 IRL campaign established Honda-powered machinery as the default benchmark in the series. The reliability record during the sole-supplier years from 2006 to 2011 demonstrated manufacturing capability that set a standard even before the intensified competition with Chevrolet resumed. The rebranding to HRC USA in 2023 reflected Honda's global motorsport reorganization but left the Santa Clarita facility's role in IndyCar and American sportscar racing essentially unchanged.