Kennametal has been named the Official Tooling Supplier of NASCAR, strengthening a partnership that has seen its engineers work alongside the motorsport organisation’s manufacturing teams since 2023.
The partnership is set to provide the motorsport organisation with access to advanced metal cutting solutions and specialist application expertise.
The designation was announced by Dave Bersaglini, Kennametal Vice President and President of Metal Cutting, during the first day of the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) 2026.
For Kennametal, the agreement builds on several years of collaboration with NASCAR, with the tooling specialist already supporting the organisation through on-site testing, application support and machining solutions.
“Every thousandth of an inch matters in NASCAR, and that’s exactly the kind of precision Kennametal brings to its customers,” said Bersaglini.
“We are proud to work alongside NASCAR’s engineering and manufacturing teams to meet the sport’s unique machining demands and deliver the speed, precision and reliability required to keep this sport performing at the highest level.”
As Official Tooling Supplier, Kennametal will provide metal cutting technology and engineering expertise to support NASCAR’s manufacturing operations. The focus will be on helping the organisation select appropriate tooling, refine machining strategies and improve manufacturing performance.
The partnership also gives NASCAR more direct access to Kennametal’s applications engineers, reducing the time spent identifying and validating tooling solutions.
“Before this partnership, finding the right tooling often meant searching for solutions and hoping we’d made the right choice,” said Bob Duvall, NASCAR Competition Partnerships & Contingency Managing Director.
“Today, we have direct access to Kennametal’s expertise, helping us identify the right tooling the first time so we can eliminate the guesswork and move faster with greater confidence.”
From testing to tooling partnership
The new designation formalises a relationship that began through Kennametal’s involvement in NASCAR’s Competition Partner Program in 2023.
Since then, Kennametal applications engineers have maintained a presence at NASCAR’s Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, working directly with the organisation’s engineering and manufacturing teams.
The collaboration has involved evaluating tooling performance, testing applications and developing machining strategies designed around NASCAR’s specific manufacturing requirements.
That close relationship is particularly relevant in motorsport, where component performance, dimensional accuracy and repeatability can have a direct impact on vehicle performance.
For Kennametal, the NASCAR partnership also provides an opportunity to apply its metal cutting expertise in an environment where machining efficiency and precision are closely linked to competitive performance.
The announcement came as manufacturers and technology providers gathered at IMTS 2026, one of the industry’s major events for showcasing developments in machining, automation and advanced manufacturing.
By moving from an established technical collaboration to an official supplier relationship, Kennametal and NASCAR will continue to work together on tooling selection and machining applications, with the aim of improving manufacturing performance across NASCAR’s operations.