Could NASCAR ever go electric in the future? A report from Racer reveals a surprising trend that does not necessarily indicate the Cup Series will be electrified entirely. However, stock car racing could still opt for a direction away from tradition, as highlighted by the main development driver of NASCAR’s electric vehicle project, David Ragan.
If you didn’t know, NASCAR took the covers off its EV prototype in Chicago last year. Ragan admitted that while NASCAR hasn’t planned for electrification, it is still exploring the avenue through a partnership with ABB. He said:
“Even though NASCAR has not made a commitment to an electric racing series, the ABB NASCAR Electrification Innovation Partnership will explore high-performance electric racing and create strategic opportunities for electrification in the sport, including race vehicles, electrification infrastructure, and energy education.”
Ragan explained how advancements in technology over the recent years have made the modern race car what it is today, and stressed that the sport mirrors the cars being sold to consumers in the automotive industry. He said:
“It’s a double-edged sword, because the NASCAR fan is a very traditional fan; but you think about how the evolution of our car has come, there was a point where a NASCAR race car just had a shoulder belt, had very limited roll bars, had a carburetor and had drum brakes probably at one time. Now our Next Gen race car has electronic fuel ignition, it’s a very safe car, a five-speed sequential gearbox. It has evolved to mirror what the automotive industry is selling to their customers and I think this is just the next evolution.”
Thus, with manufacturers offering EVs in their lineups and consumers choosing EVs over internal combustion vehicles, the trend suggests that NASCAR could eventually have a separate series for EVs. Ragan added:
“As the consumers start to buy more EVs, I think NASCAR sees a demand that the consumers want to see that car racing on the racetrack. And it is still a stock car series.
“I see manufacturers coming out with new models and some pretty cars that they plan on selling a lot of in the future. So it’s only appropriate that NASCAR learns what that might look like to help the manufacturers out. NASCAR certainly couldn’t do any kind of a series if it wasn’t for the manufacturer support.
“You’ve got to have manufacturer support that says, ‘Hey, we want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars supporting our race teams so we can market to our customers and show them how our cars perform.’
“There are more EVs that are driven to NASCAR races today than there were five years ago, and I would think in five more years, there’s going to be a lot more. So I think it’s just a matter of time.”
With most motorsports experimenting with electrification, Ragan believes NASCAR will take a similar route sooner or later. He said:
“The top divisions of motorsports all around the world have some form of electrification. Formula 1, IndyCar has their new hybrid system, the cars that are going to win the Daytona 24 Hours, 24 Hours of Le Mans all have some type of electrification, and I believe that NASCAR needs to go that direction at some point.
“I don’t know how they do that — with some type of energy harness and a boost function, while still having the ICE engine under the hood — but every other major motorsport around the globe has already done it, and it’s about time, and I challenge NASCAR to look at that and work in that direction.”
While an electric NASCAR series could be difficult to imagine, it could be equally challenging for many to think about how soon it could become a reality.
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