07/16/2026
Good read from the ex-president of the IHRA
Former IHRA President Leah Martin has shared a lengthy and personal statement addressing the recent controversy surrounding the International Hot Rod Association, offering an insider's perspective on the challenges the organization has faced.
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I’ve watched a lot of people throw IHRA under the bus over the last few weeks. I understand why. Racers, tracks, sponsors, and staff have every right to be frustrated. Uncertainty is difficult, and people deserve answers.
I’m not here to defend every decision, and I’m not here to defend the situation. I certainly don’t excuse everything that happened.
I was the first female president in motorsports history, and I experienced firsthand how public criticism can become deeply personal. Social media was filled with comments I hope my children never have to read. I was let go in an extremely public way without any explanation—one I still haven’t received. If anyone has a reason to be bitter, it would be me.
But bitterness isn’t how I choose to look at this.
I sat through countless meetings, investment pitches, and hundreds of conversations with racers, track owners, and promoters asking for help. I watched Darryl genuinely want to say yes. If he believed in an idea—or someone convinced him it could make motorsports better—he was all in. There was no stopping him either (trust me, I tried. Ha!) He made decisions quickly, driven by passion, and most times due diligence didn’t keep pace.
Was it challenging? Every single day. Were there mistakes? Absolutely. But there was also an unwavering desire to do more for racers and motorsports than we've seen in a long time.
There are also people in this industry whose motivations are financial gain, power, control, or making a name for themselves at all cost. I witnessed individuals take advantage of generosity and a genuine desire to do more for the sport.
Do Darryl and I align in our management styles? Absolutely not.
But I do believe intention matters. Intent doesn’t erase mistakes or poor decisions, and it doesn’t remove accountability. What it does provide is context. From what I experienced, his intention was never to hurt the sport—it was to invest in it, grow it, and support the racers he cared about. Sometimes those intentions were matched with good decisions, and sometimes they weren’t. Both things can be true at the same time. I honestly believe he will work to pay racers and staff what they are owed.
Would I do it all over again? Absolutely.
Not because everything went right, but because of the relationships I built, the experience I gained, and the people I met along the way.
Leadership isn’t about standing with someone only when things are going well. It’s about being honest when they don’t, acknowledging where mistakes were made, and still having the integrity to recognize good intentions when you believe they existed.
I'm not defending someone. I'm telling the truth as I experienced it. It was hard. It was chaotic. It was also fun, exciting, and insightful. It would have been much easier if those who were/are after personal gain weren't on the prowl daily. (Somedays all I was able to do was to play whack-a-mole.)
The bigger story isn’t just IHRA.
The bigger story is that motorsports as a whole is struggling. Every discipline is fighting for sponsors. Television is shrinking. Tracks are disappearing. Costs continue to rise, and participation is under pressure. We need more people willing to invest, more people willing to build, and more people willing to put the sport ahead of themselves.
You can disagree with how things were handled. You can be disappointed. You can demand accountability. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
But I also think it’s fair to recognize that someone was willing to invest significant resources into motorsports when very few others were. Much of that investment went directly back to racers.
History has a way of judging outcomes. Character is revealed by how we treat people while they’re still being written.
I know what I experienced. I know what I witnessed. And I know the truth is almost always more complicated than the loudest voices on social media.
My hope isn’t that everyone agrees with me. My hope is that our industry learns from this, supports the people who continue to invest in it, and finds a way to move forward stronger. That's what I'll be doing.
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Her statement adds another perspective to an ongoing conversation that has sparked passionate debate across the drag racing community.
What do you think? Does Leah Martin's perspective provide valuable context to the IHRA situation, or should the focus remain solely on accountability and the impact on racers, tracks, and employees?
