NASCAR driver Martin Truex Jr. races to win and certainly has done his share the past five seasons.
The 41-year-old hopes his late-career run isn’t entering the homestretch as the sport aims to modernize an antiquated race car featuring technology just as familiar to Truex’s 63-year-old father, a former driver.
The “Next Gen” car will be among the stars of the show during Sunday’s sold-out Daytona 500. The sports’ 7th generation vehicle offers a host of changes and advances along with a body style more common in the local car dealer’s showroom.
While Truex and his fellow competitors are not sure what to fully expect, NASCAR decision-makers hope the overhaul gives more drivers a chance to win, delivers fans more aggressive racing and brings more teams to the garage due to significantly reduced costs.
Truex, who since 2016 registered 28 of his 31 Cup Series wins, is for the greater good yet is not ready to cede his place in the pecking order.
“As a competitor, you always want to be at the front — and the last several years it’s going well for us,” Truex told the Orlando Sentinel. “So, it’s hard to see a big change like this coming. But at the same time it’s exciting. You’re going to see a lot of a lot of surprises, especially early in the year as we try and figure this thing out.
“Should be interesting.”
The Next Gen car’s launch has generated significant build-up and plenty of handwringing.
The debut at Daytona arrives after two years of anticipation, inexhaustible research and development, and an offseason of testing. The car’s Feb. 6 unveiling during the exhibition Busch Clash at L.A. Coliseum went off with hardly a hitch.
“We were all anxious,” Larry McReynolds, a FOX analyst and former crew chief, said. “I felt like we walked away from the Coliseum satisfied. The car was pretty durable. The amount of issues that we had was really an absolute bare minimum.
“It’s come a long way in two and a half years.”
NASCAR hopes the Next Gen car ultimately revolutionizes the sport.
The vehicle first aims to make the quantum leap from a low-stakes race on a quarter-mile track in glitzy L.A. to running on the 2.5-mile oval at iconic Daytona International Speedway for the sport’s biggest prize.
Cars are pushed to their limit during the fierce, 500-miler known for three-wide racing, multi-car pileups and close finishes.
“How these cars feel in the draft, I haven’t felt that yet,” 59-time Cup Series winner Kyle Busch said. “So we’ve got to work through that and what changes we want to make to our car. The biggest thing that we all want to do is make sure we’re good throughout a run.
“The cars will drive fine for the first 10 laps or so — what happens after that is really the question mark.”
The Next Gen car might not turn heads until closer inspection.
Drivers and their teams, hardcore fans and manufacturers are well-versed in the differences with previous models.
“Our old car was based off of pretty much 1960s technology that we refined since then,” 24-year-old Cole Custer said.
The new car will swap out 16-inch wheels for 18- or 20-inch wheels with one center lug nut opposed to five and will feature independent rear suspension, a switch from a steering box to rack and pinion steering, a camera rather than a rearview mirror and a transaxle instead of a transmission to perform gear-changing.
“It’s got some nice technology,” 35-time winner Brad Keselowski said. “I like that it’s a 5 speed where before the car had a 4 speed. That’s something cool and new and fresh. I like that challenge. The cars in general seem to really like when you drive the hell out of them. I’m enjoying that part of it.”
Fans should, too.
“You can drive it very, very hard and the car will stay underneath you,” Keselowski said. “I think you’ll see more dive-bomb-type moves.”
The Next Gen car also will harken to its “stock car” racing past when fans could purchase a car similar in the appearance to the ones on the track.
“The body style looks exactly like what you can drive off the showroom floor at your local dealership,” Ty Dillon said. “For Chevy, it’s a Camaro ZL1 that looks very, very similar.”
But sport rooted in speed and skill often came down to who could stroke the biggest check or create a sizable advantage in the garage.
Race teams now will operate from the same owner’s manual, receiving identical parts and detailed instructions regarding how to assemble them. Before, owners spent a fortune on R&D seeking an advantage.
“Underneath the body that car is essentially bought off the shelves from Costco,” David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, said.
NASCAR hopes reduced costs and uniform design attract more owners.
Keselowski became part owner at Roush Fenway Racing after last season, joining 2021 newcomers Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan with 23XI Racing and Justin Marks and Pitbull with Trackhouse Racing.
“It should bring down because you don’t have the engineering costs,” Custer said. “It should level the playing field because every team has the same exact part. There’s not one team that has something that’s better than others.”
True to its name, the Next Gen car could further distance the sport from the storied past.
During NASCAR’s nascent stage in the 1960s and into the 1970s, the top drivers — Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough — had built-in advantages with better cars due to superior financial backing.
“Back in the day, you might have had had a better engine than everybody else and you didn’t have to really work out the fine details of setup of the car,” Truex said.
Gaining an edge now will be more time-consuming and subtle yet infinitely rewarding.
Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson drove during three iterations of NASCAR changes: Gen 4 (1992-2007), Gen 5 (2007-2012) and Gen 6 (2013-2021). Now racing IndyCars, the 46-year-old is captivated like everyone else.
“It’s always the race within the race when a new generation car comes out,” Johnson said. “No one has notes. I’ll be interested to see which team figured this thing out first.”
