The GR Supra Takes One Last Pace Car Lap Before Toyota Retires It
The fifth-generation Supra gets a farewell assignment: pacing NASA's 20th anniversary Championships at Sebring before the current car ends production.
The Toyota GR Supra is heading back to pace car duty, and this time the assignment carries a farewell note. Toyota has confirmed the sports car will lead the field at the 2026 NASA Championships at Sebring International Raceway — in what is the final model year for the fifth-generation Supra.
The 20th running of the National Auto Sport Association's amateur racing finale takes place September 24–27 in Sebring, Florida. Drivers from 15 NASA regions will compete across multiple classes over four days, with the championship deciders on Sunday. The pace car wears Gazoo Racing's red, white, and black colors.
Sebring raises the stakes over last year's venue. The 3.74-mile circuit, laid out on the runways of a former Army Air Force training base, has hosted racing since 1950 and is best known for the 12 Hours of Sebring — along with a surface bumpy enough to be part of the challenge.
A Farewell Assignment
This is the Supra's second year in the role. It debuted as the NASA Championships pace car in 2025 at Ozarks International Raceway in Missouri, becoming the third GR model to lead the event — a job a Gazoo Racing car has held every year since 2021. The field has grown too: last year's championship drew 14 regions against this year's 15.
The bigger story is the car itself. The 2026 model year closes out the fifth-generation Supra, with its 382-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six offered in 3.0, 3.0 Premium, and MkV Final Edition grades — the latter capped at 1,300 units for North America, according to Toyota.
Toyota introduced the send-off model in April 2025, and an available GT4 Style Pack dresses it in matte paint with a matte carbon fiber ducktail spoiler, side graphics, and red mirror caps. Every 2026 grade still takes a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic. Barring a surprise, this is the current Supra's last tour as NASA's pace car, and Toyota hasn't said what will take over the job in 2027.
The partnership goes beyond the pace car. Every new GR sports car buyer gets a complimentary one-year NASA membership with a free High Performance Driving Event track day — a program Toyota started in 2019 for Supra owners before extending it across the GR lineup.
For those not making the trip to Florida, the racing streams live throughout the weekend at DriveNASA.com.
