The Garage 56 project is building off NASCAR‘s Next Gen platform, but with more freedom for modifications as it readies for a proposed Le Mans run next June. But the program is being closely monitored for potential advancements that could make their way to the NASCAR Cup Series.

NASCAR CEO Jim France, vice chairman Mike Helton and IMSA president John Doonan were among the invested observers during [the] two-day session at the Virginia International Raceway road course, where the latest edition of the Le Mans test stocker hit the track.

Steve O‘Donnell, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer, indicated … on the “Stacking Pennies” podcast that wind-tunnel findings from the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 test car could be given a trial run in a Next Gen test at Richmond Raceway.

“I think there‘s gonna be some good things,” O‘Donnell said. “At least from what we‘ve seen already in the wind tunnel and a lot of the sim data, it looks really good in terms of getting rid of some of the challenges as we‘ve seen, particularly on the short tracks.”

Hendrick Motorsports‘ Greg Ives, who joined the Garage 56 effort after the Cup Series season, said that the nature of the special Le Mans entry has given the team a bigger window to develop the car outside of the Cup Series rule-book structure. That spirit of innovation was most visibly evident this week with the test car‘s advanced aerodynamic additions — dive planes on the front and rear fenders, a larger front splitter and a different rear diffuser.

NASCAR.com

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