The 24 Hours Of NASCAR? One Cup Series Driver Wants It To Happen

NASCAR’s longest race is the Coca-Cola 600, but Austin Dillon has another idea.
During a press conference ahead of the season-kickoff Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium , the Richard Childress Racing driver was asked if there were other venues he’d like to see the series hold the season-kickoff exhibition race.
“I think it would be cool to join the 24 hour one year, like each team gets a car in the 24 hour and their driver lineup gets to race in it, I think that would be a cool Clash moment,” Dillon said.
“This car’s built for road racing, so I don’t understand why we can’t run the 24 hour race. Each team, you know, gets to field a car and see what it’d be like for 24 hours. It’ll let you get with your guys and work things out before the season starts, because you’re going to be working on the car throughout the night. Pretty cool team-building opportunity.”
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The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 was modified with updated bodywork and new brakes better suited to the demands of the race, but the biggest departure from the Cup Series car may have been the installation of working headlights and tail lights. The car was a huge hit with fans and made a few demonstration appearances after Le Mans, but it never raced again.
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Dillon’s idea isn’t too far-fetched, of course. In 2023 NASCAR worked with Hendrick Motorsports to build a special version of the Cup Series car that was entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as part of its Garage 56 program, which allows out of class cars to race unofficially to demonstrate new technologies.
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NASCAR owns both the Daytona International Speedway and the IMSA racing series that runs the 24 hour race, so it would be pretty easy to make Dillon’s wish come true. In fact, the Cup Series has already raced on the road course. During the hight of the Covid pandemic in August 2020 and February 2021, NASCAR held regular season races on the track that were won by Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell, respectively. Those races featured NASCAR’s sixth generation cars, however, which didn’t have the independent suspension, rack and pinion steering and five-speed transaxle the current cars are equipped with to make them better on road and street courses.