Matt Johnson
Toyota is dominating the NASCAR Cup Series this season, heading into this weekend’s race in Atlanta atop the manufacturer standings by more than 100 points. As Ford sits in a distant third, Kevin Harvick is shedding light on one potential cause for the disparity between the two manufacturers.
On this week’s episode of Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, the 2027 inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame shared his experiences racing for Ford and how the manufacturer’s teams never worked together.
“When you look at Ford, it’s a little bit dysfunctional based upon my experience at Stewart Haas Racing. Nobody ever worked together and they’re still at that point of nobody really works together.”
Kevin Harvick on Ford teams not collaborating together like Toyota
Harvick’s comments came just a few days after RFK Racing driver and co-owner Brad Keselowski called for Ford to embrace more of the “elite collaboration” that Toyota has shown with its teams.
Toyota’s efforts to emphasize collaboration between all three of its teams has paid off in 2026. In the past, Joe Gibbs Racing would be the dominant team that delivered most of the success for its OEM. Now, 23XI Racing is delivering just as many victories and top finishes. More recently, Legacy Motor Club has made real strides with its on-track performances.
“What’s become unique, I think, over the last two or three years specifically is — and I’ll give a lot of credit to Toyota for this — is they’ve recognized that that stalemate is not necessarily good for the sport or for them as an OEM and they’ve done a lot of things to push elite collaboration amongst their top organizations so that they have, for reference, two ‘A’ organizations, rather than an ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C.’ As I’ve seen to date, the other OEMs have not done that, and Toyota is making them pay for that with results on the race track. They deserve credit for that.
RFK Racing driver Brad Keselowski on Toyota’s collaboration with its teams versus Ford, Chevrolet (via NASCAR.com)
Harvick agreed with Keselowski’s point about Toyota being better at collaborating with its teams than other OEMs, and his experience at SHR, unfortunately for RFK, suggests nothing will change for Ford anytime soon.
However, he also pointed out that 23XI pays JGR for a lot of its information and that plays a big part in collaboration. Toyota certainly plays a role in all of that and the company seems to have the truest appreciation for all of its teams being successful, but collaboration doesn’t come cheap.
That’s not to let Ford off the hook. Harvick mentioned that the OEM’s development program isn’t very good and it really doesn’t have a presence anymore in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Dysfunction has just been what Ford is known for over the years and, until that changes, consistently competing with Toyota isn’t realistic.
