Lionel Racing Re-Opens Pre-Orders After Tariff Reduction

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS - MAY 11: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on May 11, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

What’s Happening?

Lionel Racing has officially reopened pre-orders for NASCAR die-cast, thanks to a 90-day pause in tariffs between the United States and China. However, this pause will still see a slight hike in prices for Lionel’s NASCAR die-cast.

The company previously announced that they were putting pre-orders on hold on Apr. 28, stating they will be in effect “until the current tariff situation settles down.” However, prior to this announcement, Lionel had not offered a pre-order since Apr. 6, when they offered Denny Hamlin’s Race Win Throwback from Darlington.

Monday, the Trump administration announced a 90-day reduction in tariffs placed on Chinese imports, dropping the rate from 145% to 30%. The company announced that pre-orders had reopened on Tuesday Morning on X, offering pre-orders for Carson Hocevar and Kyle Larson’s Kansas race wins.

While this is a reduction, prices will still increase on die-cast produced by Lionel. For example, a 1:64 scale die-cast, which once cost $10.99, now retails for $11.75 under 30% tariffs, while a 1:24 Elite Race Win, once $125, now costs $135.

During the pause, Lionel Racing posted a long list of notable race win die-casts and paint schemes that would be available for pre-order once they reopened. At press time, these die-casts, including Denny Hamlin’s Martinsville race win and Chase Elliott’s NAPA Gold paint scheme, were still not available for pre-order on the Lionel website.

Lionel initially announced tariff-related price hikes on Mar. 27, which was originally going to see a 5% “Tariff Surcharge” added to each item purchased. This quickly changed with the frequent changes in tariff rates, resulting in a pause in pre-orders.

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