M Racing announces team owner Yvan Muller, veteran Thomas Toffel and TCR superstar Yann Ehrlacher as their drivers for the upcoming 2025 EuroNASCAR season.
EuroNASCAR newcomers M Racing has announced their initial roster of drivers for the 2025 season. Team owner Yvan Muller and Thomas Toffel will race the No. 34 Chevrolet Camaro at Valencia, while two-time TCR champion Yann Ehrlacher joins the team later in the season.
Muller and Ehrlacher will share the driving duties in EuroNASCAR PRO, while Toffel will race full-time in EuroNASCAR OPEN. The status of M Racing’s planned second entry is unknown.
The announcement meant that Muller is set for his first championship race in the series. The 55-year old Frenchman had previously competed in the 2012 Tours race for Éric Hélary’s Still Racing. However, that event was a non-championship round.
On paper, it seems that Muller and his nephew Ehrlacher will share the driving duties in EuroNASCAR’s top class. However, that is not the case.
Muller revealed to nascar.eu that his return is influenced by Ehrlacher’s limitations as a TCR World Tour driver. Ehrlacher is barred from racing the EuroNASCAR cars at Valencia thanks to TCR World Tour’s strict testing rules.
Specifically, Ehrlacher would fall foul to Rule 16.2 of TCR World Tour’s regulations if he competes at Valencia next week. Rule 16.2 of TCR World Tour’s regulations states the following:
“From the closing of the full-season registrations, and until the last Competition of the season, testing, competing or any other type of driving is not permitted with any type of car at any circuit hosting a Tour Competition before the Tour Competition takes place.”
Out of all tracks that EuroNASCAR and TCR World Tour will visit in 2025, Valencia is the only one that will be visited by both. Therefore, the door is open for Ehrlacher to complete the rest of the EuroNASCAR season.
“My return to competition was not really planned since the idea was to have my nephew Yann Ehrlacher in the car from Valencia, but we couldn’t make it happen because of the TCR World Tour regulations,” confirms Muller to nascar.eu.
“So I’ll take the wheel and we’ll see if the feeling comes back quick enough. For sure it’s going to be fun but you know, I’m not as young as 15 years ago. But that’s fine, I’m pleased to do it, and I’ll do it especially to give some advice to Thomas.”
“We prepared things as best as we could. Of course, we have a lot to learn in this series. We are coming to learn, but at the same time, I hope we will do our best to reach good results.”
Toffel himself is set to make his first appearance with M Racing. He departs Race Art Technology after two successful seasons with the Swiss outfit.
While Toffel’s status as a M Racing driver was officially announced on 1 April 2025, in reality he had been signed to M Racing as early as December.
The Swiss driver is considered as one of the top contenders for the EuroNASCAR OPEN title in 2025. The 33-year old aims to build upon his impressive resume from 2024. While he’s yet to visit the Victory Lane, Toffel scored three podiums and 8 total top-5 finishes to grab fourth in the overall standings.
He also scored a shock EuroNASCAR PRO podium at Oschersleben. Toffel fought with the primary championship contenders and finished third behind Vittorio Ghirelli and Paul Jouffreau – the top-2 drivers in Europe’s premier category of stock car racing.
The early announcement gave Toffel plenty of time to test the No. 34 car during the off-season. He and Ehrlacher gave feedback to each other so that M Racing would be ready for the season opener in two weeks time.
“I’m looking forward to starting the season in Valencia,” said Toffel to nascar.eu. “My M Racing team and I have worked hard over the winter to be 100% ready for the upcoming season.”
“For my part, I’ve been training very hard all winter to be in top shape for this new season. We had some good tests this winter in Valencia and at the Magny-Cours circuit, where the team is based.”
“Everything has been undertaken very seriously to ensure a magnificent 2025 season. I thank M Racing for the work they’ve done over the winter and I thank my family, who are supporting me more than ever for this new season.”
“With Yvan, we started creating the NASCAR structure from scratch at the end of 2024. The challenge was to be ready for testing in February, which we made it happen.”
“I’m 100% confident in my team. With all the experience of Yvan and Yann and my engineer, who has a lot of experience in the championship, I’m sure they’ll give me all the best advice and to coach me to progress and take a new step in my racing career.”
Disclaimer: Credits for all photos are listed underneath each image.