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.
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).
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. 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.
“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. Then we know to be attractive to our OEMs, we need to be relevant to them.”
Also, for more Next Gen info, see Jayski‘s Next Gen Car Page.
