NASCAR Cup Series drivers Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. put NASCAR’s Next Gen car through a test on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval Monday. The test was the first of two this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with testing resuming Wednesday on the 1.5-mile CMS oval. Busch and Truex also are participating in that test.
NASCAR plans to transition to the new car for the 2022 season. The debut of the Next Gen car originally was planned for 2021, but a delay in testing earlier this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back those plans.
Monday’s test was the first for the new car on a road course and the first with multiple cars on the track at the same time.
“It’s been fun to drive, no real issues to speak of,” Truex said. “It’s been pretty fun.The biggest thing is I think it’s less horsepower than what we raced. The tires are bigger, it has more gears in the transmission, it’s sequential, and it’s got really big brakes. I guess it does everything a little bit better.”
The Next Gen car features bigger, 18-inch tires and aluminum alloy wheels with a single, center lug. It also has a sequential gearbox and bigger brakes.
“Today has been a fun, exciting, interesting day; it feels like the first day at school because of how different the car is,” Busch said. The sequential gear box is the most fun. I love shifting through the gears. The brakes are much bigger, and the car can stop a lot quicker. Overall, the car’s feel out on the Roval, it feels like I’m qualifying every lap because of impressive the lap times are and how much grip the car has in certain parts of the race track.”
