The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season will likely be remembered as a lame duck campaign for the history of the sport.

The 2021 season will see the debut of the next-generation Cup car, which will see more changes than any single iteration of what came before it. That’s in addition to the expectation that there will be some changes to the Cup Series schedule over the next decade with the five-year sanctioning agreement with the current tracks expiring after the 2020 season.

Some tracks won’t change; some will lose a date; some will gain a date; and some may get an innovative adjustment the way Pocono Raceway has for 2020—hosting a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader on the final weekend of June.

This will result in substantial savings to both NASCAR, Pocono and the broadcast crews, and this should be viewed as a test of the format. Essentially, this opened up a weekend for NASCAR without costing it a race, important because this gives the division a two-week break during NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics.

And perhaps, most importantly, the novelty of the doubleheader could result in increased interest for the NBCSN broadcast.

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Back to the car.

NASCAR, rightfully, is very anxious to entice new manufacturers beyond Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota. If one drops out, it would suggest the series has a real issue. With four or five, or even six, the suggestion would be that NASCAR is healthy enough to convince new manufacturers to spend some money.

And money is indeed an issue these days.

Not only do the manufacturers in NASCAR pay to play, but a substantial amount of advertising and promotion for the sport is done not by NASCAR, but the manufacturer partners. “Win” ads, such as “Ford congratulates Kevin Harvick for his win!” go a long way toward keeping NASCAR at the forefront.

Following along with the Harvick example, Outback Steakhouse, one of his sponsors, has offered a free Blooming Onion on Mondays after a Harvick top-10. This is sport-and-sponsor interaction at its finest and should serve as a template for other advertisers. NASCAR needs more of that.

And while people love to talk about the decline in NASCAR’s audience, it is still, by far, the most popular form of motorsports in the United States.

But the bottom line is: NASCAR needs more manufacturers and closer competition.

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That’s where the Next-Gen car comes in.

Approaching new manufacturers with the idea of joining NASCAR as it is has been a nonstarter. New potential manufacturers have privately cited the struggle the past two seasons Chevrolet has had in winning against Toyota and Ford, after decades in the sport. And the teams, with years and years of experience, and race notes, for their NASCAR Cup efforts—what chance would a new manufacturer have stepping into that solidified field?

The Next-Gen addresses that. The series is taking some cues from the smaller, but very healthy, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship—which is dear to the heart of France family patriarch Jim France.

The 75-year-old youngest son of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. was happily operating IMSA when he was called upon to run NASCAR following Brian France’s arrest in 2018.

Why IMSA? Because the two main IMSA series—WeatherTech and Michelin Pilot Challenge—have a total of 17 manufacturers on board for 2020. The leading class, Daytona Prototype International, or DPi, features Cadillacs, Mazdas and Acuras (owned, of course, by Honda). What equipment could potentially crossover from the next generation of those cars to the next generation of NASCAR Cup cars?

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As far as the powertrains go, possibly quite a bit. It has been confirmed that Honda is one of the new manufacturers approached about entering NASCAR’s Next-Gen field. But Honda doesn’t have a V8 engine in production. The Acura IMSA car is powered by a turbocharged V6. In a conversation with NASCAR, “I can tell you, V6 was mentioned,” said a source close to the NASCAR-Honda meeting.

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Some additional talking points regarding the new car:

—Like the IMSA Prototype, the Next-Gen car will have an independent rear suspension—also like most every new car sold, with the straight-axle design so faithfully used by NASCAR since Day One retained only by some trucks, truck-based SUVs, and Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators. More than any other new feature, independent rear suspension will change the handling of the car.

—Goodyear is moving from the current 15-inch tire and wheel to much wider, lower-profile 18-inchers. This will also result in a major change in the handling of the new car. There were rumors that Michelin, which has an exclusive contract with IMSA, might be interested in NASCAR. Michelin has supplied tires for NASCAR’s Euro Series, but Goodyear will continue to be the Cup Series supplier. There is also an excellent chance that the Next-Gen car will get a single-lug nut wheel, like IMSA and IndyCar has. It may also get air jacks—plug in an air hose, and the car rises on internal jacks. Again, like most every major-league racing series in the world.

—In the name of safety, refueling is expected to be accomplished by a clamp-on refueling hose, rather than a crewman lugging a gas cylinder—a practice which also mirrors IMSA.



—Both the suspension and new tire-wheel combo illustrates the point of the Next-Gen car: The track-specific notes and setups of veteran teams like Hendrick, Joe Gibbs and Penske Racing go into the trash, in addition to specific experience with fuel mileage and fuel management, and even pit stops. This creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for new manufacturers to jump in, because this is the most “level” the NASCAR Cup Series playing field will ever get.

—The Next-Gen car will have a hybrid aspect, possibly a single unit common not only to NASCAR but IMSA Prototypes, and possibly even IndyCar. Yes, there will still be an internal-combustion engine providing the main power, be it a V6 (which every manufacturer has) or a V8. But regenerative braking and possibly other forms of charging will feed a battery, which will feed an electric motor that boosts horsepower. Those 18-inch wheels not only make room for bigger and better brakes, but for any sort of regenerative (recharging) equipment.

—And a primary function of that motor: Provide a “push to pass” button, which Indy cars and Formula E already have, which are comparable to the KERS system on Formula 1 cars. Will the stored power be used only for passing or for key acceleration moments? NASCAR has the technology to make that decision.

—Which is one of multiple reasons the existing four-speed, H-pattern manual transmission will be replaced by a sequential transmission, likely a six-speed. As with sequential transmissions on other race cars, shifting could be accomplished by flipping paddles mounted on or behind the steering wheel, but it is likely that NASCAR will still use a floor shifter, with a pattern that flicks forward and backward to change gears. That would retain a degree of similarity with the current car. NASCAR Cup cars typically don’t shift on oval tracks—could this mean that they will? It’s possible.



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—The biggest change of all, though, will be the one-supplier sourcing of the chassis for every team—a spec chassis that everybody uses. As with the solid rear axle, NASCAR’s body-on-frame construction is expected to be replaced by a tub, likely using a lot of carbon fiber. This will also allow the driver to be positioned farther from the door of the car, an additional safety benefit. The one company in the running that has a great deal of experience in this, and is already building cars for U.S.-based series like IndyCar, Indy Lights and IMSA (as well as Formula 1), is Dallara. (The IMSA Cadillacs are rebadged Dallaras.) While Dallara Automobili is indeed an Italian company, part of the deal when it got the IndyCar contract was to build a factory in Indianapolis. Should it get the NASCAR contract, which would be presumably much more lucrative than IndyCar, you can bet there will be a Dallara Charlotte.

—Along with the Dallara chassis, expect a flange-fit composite body, much like the NASCAR Xfinity Series is using built by Five Star. The composite body is much tougher than the current steel bodies, which dent in some situations where the composite bodies bounce back. And rather than have to cut, hammer and Bear-Bond the steel bodies after a crash, the composite bodies, which are likely to have a dozen or so interlocking pieces, can be quickly repaired. The panels, as they are in the Xfinity Series, will resist any sort of massaging that might result in better wind tunnel results. As with the current car, decals are expected to define the different brands regarding side windows and front and rear lights. Common bodies will make it much easier for NASCAR to police them and are expected to require much less wind tunnel time.

—If you haven’t noticed, a great deal of the above will contribute to less work for the teams (center lug nuts, common composite bodies), which means some major cutbacks in team size. One team representative predicted that the staff reduction could be as high as 45 percent. Sad, but necessary. Making it cheaper to race will compensate for a more challenging sponsorship market and potentially smaller purses. With less labor, common materials and possibly less travel if the Pocono two-races-in-one-weekend experiment works, that will help offset the fire-sale prices the teams will get for disposing of their current inventory of cars, parts, engines, transmission and even tools that will no longer be needed. Since NASCAR controls the Xfinity and Truck series, as well as ARCA, perhaps they will adjust and freeze the rules for those series to provide some hand-me-down value for current Cup inventories.



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—So, who might we see on the track in 2021? Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota will be there. Good additional bets are Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. On the surface Nissan would seem likely, but it has been an especially hard sell, and there’s some bad blood between the company and NASCAR management. Dodge could return, but only with the blessing of the Italian parents of FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), a portfolio that also includes Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Maserati (Ferrari was spun off in 2016). Alfa is racing in IMSA—maybe they’d like to have an entry in NASCAR. Volkswagen, with a team assembled by Michael Andretti, came very close to joining NASCAR, but the “Dieselgate” controversy derailed that. Maybe they’re still interested. Again, the decision—as with so many manufacturers—would ultimately have to be made overseas, where NASCAR may or may not be understood. Even if the U.S. branch of a foreign manufacturer is given the responsibility of joining NASCAR, that must still be blessed overseas.

—Bottom line: NASCAR has some selling to do—not just to manufacturers, but to fans, especially traditionalists who may see these changes as just too much to continue to follow a sport they’ve enjoyed since Richard Petty was assembling his 200 wins. Expect NASCAR to turn to personalities like Petty to help convince longtime fans to give the new cars and adjusted schedules a chance, while they will depend on younger drivers to help bring in the next generation of spectators. And if we are ever going to see some new manufacturers in the Cup Series, it’s now or never.

—And finally, while testing has begun on the Next-Gen cars, there are still some segments of the racing industry that see a field full of Next-Gen cars at the 2021 Daytona 500 as optimistic, at best. The car could be delayed for months, or even a year, or possibly tested in a later-season race, but prior to the playoffs. There’s an overwhelming number of moving parts here, and it seems entirely possible that something might go wrong. Regardless, expect NASCAR and its broadcasters to work hard to keep your eye on the 2020 ball, the way manufacturers try to sell out their 2019 inventory of a car that changes substantially in 2021.

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