Toyota Racing’s beloved Sponsafier campaign returned for the 2022 season. Three new commercials will begin airing nationally as part of NBC and Fox’s NASCAR and NHRA telecasts over the weekend. Additionally, Sponsafier will once again feature the opportunity for fans to design their own car to be featured in the Toyota Racing Experience later this season.

The commercials feature two drivers that were part of the original campaign - two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin - and two new drivers - former Cup Series champion Kurt Busch and NHRA Funny Car champion J.R. Todd. Toyota Racing worked with a North Carolina company on all three pieces.

The Busch brothers are featured in a commercial entitled “Aliens” in which an alien hunter designs a scheme that highlights her passion. The piece was filmed, in part, at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway. “IT Help,” which features Hamlin, showcases a father and son relationship, where the father struggles with technology and Hamlin is there to help. Finally, Todd is the star in the first-ever NHRA Sponsafier clip called “Bad Clown.” Todd’s all-new Toyota GR Supra has been turned into a “Funny Car” to much chagrin from the former NHRA titleist.

“It was something they did years ago with Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin and they decided to bring it back and involve the NHRA this time,” Todd explained. “It was like a movie set in Pomona on the Monday after the World Finals. I got to have some fun with the crew guys and I am excited to finally get to show the fans what we did. It was a lot of fun to put together.”

The clip shows Todd admitting his fear of clowns before cutting to a terrifying clown designing his own “Funny Car” complete with magic elements, a whoopie cushion in the driver’s seat and a giant image of the clown on the nose of the car. The video ends with Todd hoisting a balloon trophy in the winner’s circle.

“It was an all-day shoot from morning until dusk. It is crazy how many scenes and cuts and edits there were just to make that 30-second commercial,” Todd said. “It is cool when you can show the fans a little bit of your personality.”

So, the commercial begs the question, does Todd actually have a fear of clowns? “No, I definitely don’t have a fear of clowns,” he said. “Well, maybe now with that crazy one from the commercial.”

Most exciting about the national campaign for Toyota is the added spotlight it will place on the sport of drag racing and one of its drivers, something that was a regular occurrence when Todd was growing up. And Todd is honored to help carry the torch for the sport.

“It is good to have the NHRA on the national stage like that. You don’t see too many of us nowadays getting to be in national commercials,” he said. “When I was a kid, drag racers were superstars. Snake (Don Prudhomme) and Kenny (Bernstein) and John Force, they were on every commercial back in the day on TNN and other channels. It is nice to have sponsors like Toyota allowing us to do things like this and getting to be on the big stage with the NASCAR guys and other forms of motorsports. Hopefully it gets a good reaction from the fans and we can do more things like this for the sport.”

As part of Sponsafier’s return, fans once again will have the chance to design their own scheme. They can register to win this opportunity on www.sponsafier.com from June 25 through August 31, with the winner being unveiled in mid-September. The winner will get to design a scheme on either a Toyota Camry TRD NASCAR Cup Series car or a Toyota GR Supra Funny Car. The scheme will be unveiled at Toyota’s display area, the Toyota Racing Experience, later this season.