Toyota's earliest documented presence in NASCAR dates to 1981, when Bill Collins drove a Toyota Celica in the NASCAR International Sedan Series, finishing eighteenth at Talladega. The brand made its first factory-supported move into NASCAR with a V6-Celica program in the Goody's Dash Series in 2000. Robert Huffman helped establish Toyota as a legitimate contender for the series title by its second season, placing second in the championship in both 2001 and 2002, before becoming Toyota's first NASCAR champion in 2003.
Travis Kvapil gave Toyota its first win in a NASCAR national series in the 2004 Line-X 200 at Michigan International Speedway in the then-NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving a Tundra owned by Bang! Racing. That breakthrough foreshadowed a sustained championship run: Todd Bodine won the Truck Series title in 2006, becoming the first driver to give Toyota a NASCAR championship in a major national series. Subsequent Truck Series titles came via Johnny Benson Jr. in 2008, Bodine again in 2010, Matt Crafton in 2013 and 2014, Erik Jones in 2015, Christopher Bell in 2017, Brett Moffitt in 2018, and Ben Rhodes in 2021.
Jason Leffler gave Toyota its first Xfinity Series win on July 28, 2007, in the Kroger 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park driving a Camry owned by Braun Racing. Kyle Busch won the series' driver's championship in 2009, Daniel Suarez did so in 2016, and Daniel Hemric won the title in 2021. Since 2019, Toyota has campaigned the Supra nameplate in the Xfinity Series; as of the 2026 season, Joe Gibbs Racing and Sam Hunt Racing carry the effort.
After establishing itself in the lower series, Toyota entered the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series simultaneously for 2007, with the Toyota Camry as the Cup vehicle. Initial partners were Michael Waltrip Racing, Red Bull Racing Team, and Bill Davis Racing. The debut season was difficult: Toyota secured only two poles across 36 races and a single top-five finish across the seven-team effort.
The picture changed sharply in 2008 when Joe Gibbs Racing joined the Toyota camp. Kyle Busch gave Toyota its first Cup win in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 9, 2008, leading a race-high 173 laps. Toyota closed that season with ten victories, with Denny Hamlin and Busch finishing eighth and tenth respectively in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Ten more victories followed in 2009, including wins from David Reutimann and Brian Vickers alongside Hamlin and Busch.
In 2010, Hamlin won eight races and held the points lead heading into the season finale before falling short of the championship. The 2012 season brought a pivotal engine program merger between TRD and Joe Gibbs Racing, which had previously built its own motors in-house; the consolidation strengthened all Toyota teams. Matt Kenseth joined JGR in 2013 and won a series-high seven races, propelling Toyota to fourteen victories that season in its strongest manufacturer campaign to that point.
Kyle Busch missed the first eleven races of the 2015 season due to a broken leg, yet returned to win Toyota its first Cup driver's championship. Martin Truex Jr., driving for Furniture Row Racing under a JGR alliance, won a second driver's title in 2017, with Busch finishing second, marking a 1-2 championship sweep for Toyota. Busch claimed a third Toyota Cup title in 2019. As of the 2024 season, Toyota's Cup partners are 23XI Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Legacy Motor Club, all campaigning the Camry.
Toyota has run three distinct nameplates across the three national series at various points in its NASCAR tenure: the Camry in the Cup and Xfinity Series, the Supra in the Xfinity Series from 2019 onward, and the Tundra in the Truck Series. All engines and technical support are supplied through TRD's California facility.
Toyota's entry into NASCAR in 2007 broke the exclusive hold of American manufacturers on the sport's premier series and forced rival teams to raise their competitive standards. Within two seasons Toyota had established itself as a regular winner; within a decade it had accumulated multiple driver's championships. The program also attracted internationally recognized names to the Truck Series for testing and exhibition appearances, including Kimi Raikkonen and Nelson Piquet Jr., underlining the crossover appeal of Toyota's NASCAR platform.