NASCAR is almost ready to plug in.
Chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell confirmed during the state of the sport press conference on Friday in Phoenix that NASCAR has built a prototype electric racing car.
“Yeah, a lot of work’s gone on at the R&D department around EV. We have a car,” O’Donnell said.
“We have an alternative body style with that car. I would not look for us specifically to go racing with it. I think you could see it showcased at certain events next year. But there’s other forms that we want to look at.”
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Rumor has it that the vehicle may be styled after an SUV, since NASCAR already has cars and trucks covered, but O’Donnell didn’t elaborate.
When the Next Gen Cup Series car debuted last year, NASCAR said it had been designed with future powertrains in mind, including a hybrid.
There wasn’t any mention of that during the event, but O’Donnell said they’re looking at another way to keep using internal combustion V8s while cutting carbon emissions.
“I’m actually headed to Japan Thursday to go look at hydrogen racing specifically. We’ve got a contingent heading over to Japan to look at that,” he said.
Toyota, which competes in all of the NASCAR national series, is big on hydrogen as an alternative to electric power, both for use with an electricity-generating fuel cell and as a combustible fuel.
It has converted several sports cars to run on hydrogen and entered them in races and has also revealed a 24 Hours of Le Mans prototype, with the race set to allow hydrogen-fueled cars in 2026.
“We want to kind of test each and every form,” O’Donnell added.
NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports entered a modified Cup Series car in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans under the exhibition Garage 56 program for experimental cars. It was a huge hit with the fans and ramped up talk about NASCAR doing more international events in some fashion.
“We’ll continue to look at what forms of racing we would bring outside the U.S., what technology is under the hood,” O’Donnell said.
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“A lot of opportunities for us as a sport, be it alternative fuels, electric, hydrogen. Everything’s on the table, which is unique for I think us as a sanctioning body in terms of having that Garage 56 program, having our Next Gen car designed specifically for all kinds of different power units.”
