Other notes and facets that were released or featured as part of Wednesday’s reveal: Our drivers are pretty aggressive already, but we think this composite body will really allow them to bump and bang a whole lot more.” “We’re really hoping that this encourages them to get a little bit even more aggressive, if that’s possible. “This new car’s going to allow them to get into the wall a little bit, get into each other a little bit, without really any worse for the wear as far as the performance of the vehicle,” Probst said. The resilient nature of the composite, flange-fit bodies has reduced some of the negatives of full-contact racing in the Xfinity Series, a trait that’s expected to carry over with even stronger material for the Cup Series’ new model next season. Five Star Fabricating, Inc., produces the composite body panels, which were phased into the Xfinity Series starting in 2017. The body materials have changed, going from the well-established sheet metal to a durable composite body. Car specifications, a list of parts suppliers and other details were released, all ranging from larger, fundamental shifts to smaller but still significant nuances that have gone into the build-out process.įront and center in the unveiling were the bodies and their coupe-like stance - a shorter rear deck, a lower roof and wider dimensions. In the meantime, there’s plenty to unpack from Wednesday’s launch. The Next Gen prototype has undergone significant testing, and the OEM unveiling coincided with the model’s 12th on-track test - with Ryan Blaney at the controls of the P3 test car at Texas Motor Speedway. Wednesday marked the next phase in the path to its 2022 competition debut, a timeline that was delayed by a year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last season. “I think now that the range of adjustment (teams) will have on a week-in, week-out basis will exceed what they have as an opportunity with the hardware they’re running today.” We don’t sell tickets to the wind tunnel or to watch engineers run simulations, so just trying to keep things focused on the race track. “And while that will always be in our sport and rightfully so, we felt like we needed to have that at a level that’s commensurate with the amount of attention that the fans get out of it. “If you look at where Gen-6 is today, there’s a big component of it that’s around wind tunnels and simulation,” Probst said, referring to the Cup Series’ current model, which made its competition debut in 2013. But the project also included a heavy focus on the competition side, developing a symmetrical car with features that decrease the dependence on aerodynamics and increase the emphasis on car setup in the hands of teams and drivers. Then we know to be attractive to our OEMs, we need to be relevant to them.”Ĭompetition officials worked in tandem with the manufacturers in that search for product relevance, adding bigger wheels, a more muscular coupe-style look, the potential for hybrid power in the future and a closer resemblance to each car’s road-going version (think sinews over stickers). “I think that at the highest level, one of the main goals is just that the sport remains healthy and strong, that it remains attractive to our current OEMs, teams and fans, but also attracts new ones,” said John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing innovation. “As we kind of dive into that, it’s sort of your overarching goal. But in dialing back toward more of a stock feel for better relevance to their production-car counterparts, the Next Gen car also showed off plenty of new components - some that had shown up on test-mule prototypes, but some that the NASCAR industry and fans saw in detail for the first time. Wednesday’s public debut of the Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, the Ford Mustang and the Toyota TRD Camry for 2022 showed off some of those car-specific characteristics. NASCAR’s three automakers released their Next Gen models for Cup Series competition in 2022 on Wednesday at The Park Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina, ushering in a new era of the “Rebirth of Stock.” The model that began its life with a Gen-7 codename and was previously seen in testing prototypes with camouflaged or generic wrap designs has now emerged with three sleek bodies specific to each Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). What started after the 2018 season as a clean sheet of paper in NASCAR’s Research & Development Center is now delivered, dressed and ready for its close-up. This story first appeared on on May 5, 2021:
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