The museum was created by a group of long-time NHRA staff members and was named after Wally Parks, the founder of the NHRA, on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday. Parks himself was central to establishing the museum's mission, having spent decades building the NHRA from a grassroots safety-and-sportsmanship organization into the world's largest motorsport sanctioning body. Steve Gibbs, a retired vice-president of the NHRA, led the team that reconditioned a WPA-constructed building of approximately 28,500 square feet on the Fairplex grounds to house the collection. The museum opened to the public in 1998.
The Automobile Club of Southern California serves as the presenting sponsor of the museum, providing ongoing institutional support for its operations and programming.
The museum's permanent collection encompasses a wide range of artifacts from across the history of hot-rodding and American drag racing. Among the notable exhibits is one of A. J. Foyt's Coyote Indy Cars, reflecting the crossover between drag racing culture and other American motorsport disciplines. Kenny Bernstein's first dragster to exceed 300 mph is also on display, commemorating a milestone that reshaped what was considered achievable in Top Fuel competition. Additional holdings include the Bob McClung helmet and photo collection, a collection of Indianapolis 500 credentials, and artifacts from early events in the history of land speed records and hot rods.
Temporary exhibitions have honored many figures and subjects central to the hot-rodding world, including Vic Edelbrock, Don Prudhomme, the 1932 Ford, Track Roadsters, Parnelli Jones, and the So-Cal Speed Shop. In 2008, the museum launched a special exhibition dedicated to Gale Banks and his contributions to drag racing, titled "Banks Power: The First 50 Years."
The museum produces and benefits from two annual hot rod reunion events that serve both as fundraisers and as community celebrations of the sport's heritage. The Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion is held each June at Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, drawing competitors and enthusiasts from across the country. The NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion takes place each October at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California, a venue historically significant to West Coast drag racing.
The museum operates as a non-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Its mission extends beyond static display to active engagement with the living heritage of drag racing, through temporary exhibitions, annual events, and educational programming that connects current enthusiasts with the sport's origins in post-war American car culture.
As the institutional home of NHRA history, the museum preserves the story of how organized drag racing emerged from the informal hot-rod culture of Southern California in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The renaming in honor of Wally Parks acknowledged his singular role in transforming street racing into a structured, safety-conscious sport with national reach. The museum ensures that the people, machines, and moments that defined that transformation remain accessible to future generations of motorsport fans and competitors.