



NASCAR and Hyundai have had multiple high-level talks regarding the possibility of the Korean car builder joining the NASCAR ranks in 2021 or 2022.

The bad news for NASCAR: Hyundai didn’t say yes.

The good news: They didn’t say no.

"It is something we are looking at closely," said Thomas Schemera, who is the head of global product strategy and design for Hyundai and Kia. He joined the company in March 2018 as head of Hyundai’s high-performance vehicle and Motorsports division and was promoted to his current position eight months later.

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NASCAR has given up on trying to attract new manufacturers to the current car but is lobbying non-participating manufacturers heavily to join up for 2021 and beyond. It will create more of a level playing field for new entries; it will be cheaper to run, and it will help raise your profile in America, a major selling point to Hyundai. Keep in mind that Korea is one of the few major industrialized countries that has absolutely no native performance-car history, much less racing history, hence the influx of performance-savvy executives from BMW and elsewhere.

Which includes Hyundai’s Schemera, who has been in on the meetings with NASCAR, and was impressed. "There is still a lot to cover," he said, and despite NASCAR’s suggestions that costs would be reduced, "it would be a very expensive proposition."

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