The anticipated debut of Next Gen car has been delayed until 2022 by NASCAR.
Scheduled to debut at the 2021 Daytona 500, the NASCAR announced that the Nex Gen car will only debut in 2022 as due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. John Probst, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Innovation explained:
Due to challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic, the debut of the Next Gen car will be delayed until 2022. The decision was made in collaboration with the OEMs and team owners. We will continue to develop the Next Gen car, and a revised testing timeline will be shared when more information is available.
The Next Gen model has been tested by the NASCAR Cup Series drivers since October 2019. Joey Logano, having tested the car at Richmond was positive about the impact that the cars will make.
It’s not about what drives the best, what’s the easiest to drive … we don’t want that. We want something that’s challenging that will show that the best driver and the best team will prevail. … So we’re trying things on different extremes.
We’re still in the preliminary stages, but we definitely have some cool pieces to the car.
Speaking of the new features, NASCAR said that “the Next Gen prototype’s new features include 18-inch, single center-locking lug wheels designed by German wheel manufacturer BBS”. Other features include:
…a new body design, a shorter rear spoiler, a raised splitter and larger brakes, giving the Next Gen model a closer correlation between a highway-going consumer vehicle and its NASCAR counterpart, a move that also means increased brand identity.