We are hearing more and more about NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports aiming to enter a modified NASCAR Next Generation Cup Series car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It has in fact become official as a "Garage 56" experimental entry to be spearheaded by Hendrick Motorsports with an all-star driving trio of Mike Rockenfeller, Jimmie Johnson, and Formula 1 champion, Jenson Button. Having worked with Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller at Action Express and considering that Action Express also assisted in fabrication of the bodies of the new Cup cars, there is a connection. That being said, I cannot be sure, but I think this effort with the stock car will be spearheaded exclusively by Hendrick Motorsports.
We shall see how they do, assuming they are granted an entry by the ACO and the FIA. Some diehard NASCAR fans are not interested in the direction their sport is taking and that is understandable, as adjustment to large wholesale changes is a hard thing to accept. However, as a NASCAR and sports car racing fan, I am willing to accept such changes. Whether the French governing bodies of the ACO and the FIA accept the Next Gen NASCAR Cup car as an entrant at the Le Mans 24 Hours remains to be seen. It was done way back in 1976 when a Ford Torino entered by Junie Donlavey and a Dodge Charger entered by Dick Brooks, were accepted. But the entries by these two now legends of NASCAR, did not survive the distance because their Jericho type, H pattern, floor shift transmissions gave out and this was well before the chicanes were installed on the Mulsanne straight.
The Next Gen Cup car uses a modern sequential gearbox and transaxle derived from road racing, from sports car racing. I believe it is an Xtrac unit. Even that will have to be beefed up to compete at Circuit de la Sarthe. Independent suspension is also part of the package, bringing NASCAR race cars more in line with modern day production cars. Rockenfeller is a former Le Mans and Daytona winner. Le Mans with Audi and Daytona with Action Express. Jimmie Johnson, since he retired from his sterling NASCAR career of seven titles to match Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, has done a lot of racing, mostly of the endurance sports car and IndyCar variety as well as the Race of Champions which is pretty much the motorsports equivalent of the Olympics.
Jenson Button is a World Champion in Formula 1 and a man who won 15 Formula 1 Grand Prix in a span of six years, during his 17-year career as a Formula 1 driver between 2000 and 2017. Jimmie Johnson started his career in short course offroad truck racing, working his way to the stock car ranks through the old American Speed Assocation and into NASCAR through the Xfinity and into the Cup Series where, he amassed 83 career victories and tied with both Richard Petty and the late, great Dale Earnhardt, as a seven-time series champion, and since then, he has run endurance sports car races in IMSA for Action Express as well as racing in IndyCar.
So, the chosen drivers for this project have bucketloads of merit and are serious legends of the sport. Button and Rockenfeller have raced at Le Mans. As I said, Rockenfeller is a Le Mans and Daytona winner. It will be interesting to see how all of this transpires with bringing a heavily modified Next Gen NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to France for the Le Mans 24 Hour race should the entry be fully and openly accepted. Time will tell. Stay tuned to Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog, to see if it happens.
As you have noted from some of the posted articles about the Daytona test, the Next Generation NASCAR Cup, road racer for Le Mans, laps the 3.56-mile combined trioval and road course at Daytona International Speedway, in the same ballpark as a GT3 car. So, we are talking about cars like the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD, Aston Martin Vantage GT3, BMW M4 GT3, Lexus RC F GT3, the Lamborghini Huracan, Ferrari 296, Acura NSX GT3, McLaren 720S GT3, Porsche 911 GT3R, Mercedes AMG GT3, Audi R8, and soon to be introduced (for next year), Ford Mustang GT3.
Some very fascinating developments through what we have seen with this Daytona test session I must say. I think I can dig it. A NASCAR race car, with real, working headlamps and taillamps! Once again, it's brilliant! Kudos to you, NASCAR. You are learning things from those of us over here in sports car racing land.
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