NASCAR cars haven’t exactly been truly “stock” for some time, though that wasn’t always the case. When the sport first got going in 1948, drivers were racing cars that looked remarkably close to what fans could buy at a dealership.
Over the decades, NASCAR has moved further away from production cars and toward purpose-built race machines. Still, the connection to the manufacturers never really disappeared, though.
Today, Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota compete in the NASCAR Cup Series as well as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The Craftsman Truck Series has an even broader lineup, with Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, and Ram all represented.
The current cars may share little mechanically with their showroom counterparts, but the names on the hood still matter. So, here’s a look at every manufacturer and model currently competing in NASCAR’s three national series.
Ford’s current Cup Series entry is the Mustang Dark Horse, which replaced the Mustang GT in 2024. Regardless, the Mustang brand has been part of NASCAR’s top division since 2019, when Ford replaced the Fusion with its iconic pony car.
This new version, however, has a limited run left. Ford has already confirmed that a new Mustang Dark Horse SC will debut in the Cup Series at the 2027 Daytona 500. This means the new body (the third of the Next Gen Era) is based on the supercharged variant of the OEM’s road car, representing Ford’s next step with the Mustang in NASCAR.
Ford has used the Mustang in NASCAR’s second-tier series since 2010, when it replaced the Ford Fusion with the introduction of a new car during the 2010 season. Unlike the Cup Series, where the current Dark Horse branding is used, the OAP Series simply carries the Mustang name.
Over the years, the car has seen changes to its look, with some design tweaks and updates to decals, to keep up with the latest release of the Mustang. That said, the car remains one of the most recognizable Ford entries in the series.
However, Ford’s presence in the series has fluctuated in recent years.
Ford’s representation in the Truck Series goes through its most recognizable and one of the manufacturer’s successful models, the F-150. The brand’s F-Series has been represented in NASCAR’s Truck Series since the division was created in 1995.
In fact, the manufacturer has remained involved throughout the series’ history, making it one of the longest-running manufacturer nameplates in the division alongside Chevrolet.
The current F-150 race truck shares the basic identity of Ford’s production pickup while being built specifically for NASCAR competition. It remains one of the three manufacturers competing full-time in the Truck Series.
The World’s largest automaker joined the Cup Series in 2007, becoming the first manufacturer from outside the United States to compete in NASCAR’s premier division. From the start, Toyota has raced the Camry, and in 2024, it introduced the Camry XSE, replacing the previous Camry TRD body style.
Much like Ford, the brand scrapped that original NASCAR Next Gen body style after just two seasons. The move was made as the Japanese OEM had redesigned its production Camry for 2025, and the NASCAR version was updated to reflect the newer street car.
Toyota’s second-tier NASCAR entry is the Supra, which made its O’Reilly Series (then known as the Xfinity Series) debut in 2019.
The model replaced the Camry that Toyota had used in the series since entering NASCAR’s second division in 2007 and into the new body style during the 2010 season. The change brought a sports-car nameplate back to NASCAR and gave Toyota a model that better reflected its performance-oriented road-car lineup.
The Japanese manufacturer brought the Tundra to the Truck Series in 2004, making it the manufacturer’s first entry in a NASCAR national series. Since then, the model has built a pretty strong resume in the Truck Series, including multiple championships.
Toyota remains a major player in the division today, with teams such as TRICON Garage brandishing the Tundra brand on track.
Chevrolet’s Cup Series car is the Camaro ZL1, which took over from the Chevrolet SS in 2018. The Camaro itself has been part of NASCAR’s story for much longer, first showing up in the Cup Series back in 1967.
The current ZL1 became Chevrolet’s Next Gen entry when the new platform arrived in 2022. It has been a familiar sight in the Cup garage ever since, despite the road-going Camaro’s disappearance from the manufacturer’s global lineup, with the production of the Camaro ending after the 2024 model year.
In response to this, Chevrolet removed the Camaro branding, and kept the body, introducing minor changes for the 2026 season.
When it comes to the O’Reilly side of things, the manufacturer takes a similar approach. Unlike Ford and Toyota, and just how they do in the Cup Series, Chevrolet doesn’t put a specific production model name on the side of its NASCAR car.
The entry simply runs as a Chevrolet, though, it is the Camaro body first introduced to replace the Impala in 2013. Much like the Mustang, the camaro has seen minor tweaks over it’s decade plus of competition in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
Like Ford, Chevrolet has had a Silverado in the Truck Series since the division’s first season in 1995. That gives the pickup one of the longest-running manufacturer nameplates in the series.
The truck on the racetrack is, of course, a long way removed from the Silverado sitting in a dealership parking lot, though, over the seasons, the Truck Series body has evolved to match the current generation Silverado..
Ram is the newest name on the current NASCAR national-series manufacturer list, returning to the Truck Series in 2026.
Dodge, formerly, raced in the Truck Series starting in the division’s first season in 1995, winning races and championships along the way. But after Ram became its own truck brand in 2009, and officially left in 2012, it stayed away from the stock car racing scene for more than a decade until this year.
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