NASCAR has announced that the introduction of the Next Gen car will be delayed until 2022.
The car was scheduled to debut at the 2021 Daytona 500.
NASCAR issued a statement from John Probst, senior vice president of racing innovation, which read:
“Due to challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic, the debut of the Next Gen car will be delayed until 2022.
“The decision was made in collaboration with the OEMs and team owners. We will continue to develop the Next Gen car, and a revised testing timeline will be shared when more information is available.”
The Next Gen car has been seen as a long-term cost-savings measure for teams and will include common parts from vendors such as single centre-locking lug nut wheels.
But with vendor work halted due to self-isolation orders, the timeline of getting parts to teams by mid-2020 became an issue.
NASCAR has done testing with the Next Gen car four times since late last year, with a different driver behind the wheel on each occasion.
NASCAR has also had all its events postponed from the Atlanta race weekend on March 14-15 until the Dover Cup race on May 3 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
