Chevrolet Blazer EV SS To Pace Daytona 500 And An Electric Chevy NASCAR Car Will Debut At The Race
The Chevrolet Blazer EV SS will be blazing down Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.
The new high performance version of Chevy’s electric SUV will serve as the pace car for the Daytona 500. It will be the first time an EV has paced The Great American Race.
The Blazer EV SS has a starting price of 615 $61,995 when it arrives in showrooms in the coming weeks.
Its dual motor drivetrain is rated at maximum 615 hp and 650 lb-ft torque and can accelerate to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds when its Wide Open Watts (WOW) mode is engaged.
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While that may be helpful getting up to speed in front of the pack during the warm up laps and caution periods, it won’t need much longer getting up to Daytona’s 70 mph pace speed. The Blazer EV SS has an estimated range of 303 miles per charge and won’t likely need to drive anywhere close to that far during the race, but the Blazer models currently on sale can pick up 78 miles worth of electricity during a 10 minute session at a DC fast charging station.
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While the Blazer EV SS pace car is completely stock, Chevrolet will also be unveiling a racing version of the model at Daytona. The Blazer EV.R is Chevrolet’s version of the electric NASCAR protptype that the series developed and demonstrated last year.
The car is based on the seventh generation Cup Series chassis, but features a tri-motor electric drivetrain and wears the body of a generic crossover SUV. Last month Ford debuted its take on the car, which uses the same chassis and powertrain, but is styled to look like the Mustang Mach-E.
Chevrolet has released two teaser images of the vehicle. One a close up of its hood and the other showing it from behind doing a smoky drift.
“Our Chevrolet V8 engines continue to be an important part of NASCAR. Racing has always been an important platform for Chevrolet to test, learn and explore new technologies,” Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president, GM Performance & Motorsports, said in a news release.
NASCAR said it has no intention of starting an all-electric series in the near future, but is exploring various alternative powertrain options and has said it is possible that the crossover body idea could find its way into one of its series as automakers continue to move away from traditional car models.
Chevrolet’s Cup Series and Xfinity Series cars are both still based on the Camaro that went out of production in 2023, because the only car in its lineup is the mid-engine Corvette.
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