Lionel halts new NASCAR diecast availability due to tariffs

The ongoing tariff war, orchestrated by US President Donald Trump, is now impacting the NASCAR diecast industry.

Lionel Racing, who holds exclusive rights to produce diecast versions of NASCAR stock cars, have already increased prices due to the tariffs that now exist on imports from China. On 1:24 scale race win diecasts, the price tag went up by 18% while the ‘Elite’ versions went up by 29%. Lionel has been the sole producer of various NASCAR diecasts since 2013.

However, the diecast provider has now decided to halt availability for pre-orders entirely, as well as announcing an impact to its shipment of some new merchandise, citing uncertainty in the market. The collector’s version of Austin Cindric’s NASCAR Cup victory from Talladega last weekend is not available on their website. However, they did post a picture of the car in Victory Lane with a caption that read, ‘coming soon.’ The newest race win diecast that can be found in their shop is Denny Hamlin’s Darlington victory. There’s nothing from the winners of the Bristol race weekend or the Talladega weekend that followed.

“We know many of you have noticed a halt in pre-order offers over the past few weeks,” a statement from the company read on Monday. “This is a temporary measure until the current tariff situation settles down. We are still working with race teams to get sales sheets put together, we are still obtaining reference photos and artwork for raced-wins and standard cars, and we are still sampling and producing diecast.

“The only things currently on hold are new pre-orders and shipping from our factory. As soon as we can get that going again, trust us, we will! In the meantime, here are a few of the die-cast that we plan to release for pre-order once tariffs stabilize.”