“The general concept of a NASCAR cup car is a mid 1960s Chevrolet Chevelle front clip and a mid 1960s pickup truck suspension in the rear. NASCAR teams spent decades refining this technology.”
NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car in 2022. And, for some strange reason, it’s a sportscar.
It used to be that the chassis used in NASCAR Cup Series would trickle down and be used in the lower divisions of the stock car racing ladder. That’s no longer the case, at all. How could it be? The car is for road racing.
Denny Hamlin says Next Gen cars cost $350,000 and the nose pieces alone cost $75,000
NASCAR threw away years of tradition to introduce a new car from the ground up. Jim France took over leadership of the sport in 2018 when Brian France was removed. Before Jim led NASCAR, he was the head of IMSA, a road racing series owned by NASCAR.
The Next Gen Car Design: The Cup car now features an independent rear suspension with double wishbones (A-arms) and five-way-adjustable coil-over dampers on the front. The legacy 4-speed transmissions were replaced with a sequential 5-speed and it’s now fitted with a rack and pinion steering. Then, add a carbon fiber underbody tray with a rear diffuser.
None of anything above existed in any era of NASCAR prior to the Gen-7 car. Again, why?
Now, NASCAR is discussing changes to the NASCAR O’Reilly Series which still uses a legend-style chassis design. But, week after week, the O’Reilly Series puts on a better show.
Changes are being discussed. So where do we go from here?
Dale Earnhardt Jr takes you behind the scenes on discussions with NASCAR regarding changes to the car
Dale Earnhardt Jr opened via X, “I proposed to Steve O’Donnell and others that we do this…”
“Keep the current car, but made with new parts from NASCAR specified companies.”
“The general concept of a NASCAR cup car is a mid 1960s Chevrolet Chevelle front clip and a mid 1960s pickup truck suspension in the rear. NASCAR teams spent decades refining this technology.”
“Keep all of the general concepts and theories. Similar mounting points and such, all parts made by a Nascar mandated manufacturer or two or three. Trailing arms, upper and lower control arms, spindles. You name it. Have designated companies produce it all.”
“We could phase these parts in over the next 5 years and continue to race into the future a car we all have an extremely deep connection to.”
Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are looking for Next Gen fixes
“The truck series could use these same parts. They could trickle down to ARCA, Late Model Stock. There is enough racing going on between all levels of “stock car racing” that this could be lucrative to the specified manufacturers of said parts. It would be cost affective toward teams.”
“It would create a pipeline of parts trickling down toward the grassroots levels of racing as they too are concerned over current parts and current and future scarcity. This is doable and maintains a key identifiable element to our industry.”
Dale Jr fears changes for the O’Reilly Series cars
“My fear is that the industry needs to create a trickle down model for the current Cup Next Gen car. Hubs, front and rear suspension, drivetrain. All these mileaged parts used to have a place to go and compete until the Next Gen was introduced.”
“So there may be some who feel it’s common sense for the other 2 national series to adopt literal framework to utilize these pieces. No doubt Cup teams would like to have a marketplace for these parts.”
“Time will tell but I have a feeling it’ll be really challenging to convince the league to keep the O’Reilly vehicle on its current architecture long term.”
NASCAR drivers continue to knock the Next Gen car after Indy
