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NASCAR Announces Horsepower, Rear Spoiler Package for Next Gen Car

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season will feature a 4-inch rear spoiler and 670 horsepower at a majority of tracks, NASCAR announced Dec. 21.

The news comes after NASCAR concluded a test of its Next Gen Cup car last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“It’s been a two-year process,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR evp and chief racing development officer, said. “So certainly, it came down to Friday, but that was really through all the work, the thousands of hours of on-track testing and the collaboration with the industry and continued tests to really narrow down what could be the final rules package for the Next Gen car. Friday (Dec. 17), we were able to solidify that.

“We met with the industry, a number of drivers post-test on Friday with the packages we had narrowed down and really hit on what we all thought would be a great Next Gen car in terms of going out under one rules package with 670 horsepower and then a low-downforce 4-inch spoiler, which we we believe we can implement across all of our tracks outside of superspeedways.

“So the bottom line of all this, and you’ll hear this from the drivers is that this package with the Next Gen car puts it back in the drivers’ hands and we’re excited about what that will do in 2022, for sure.”

The announced package will be utilized at all tracks except superspeedways (Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway). Setups for those tracks will be revealed at a later date.

About the author

Rutherford is the managing editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2015 after serving on the editing staff for two years. At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.

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Jake

Big steps in the direction of better racing!

DoninAjax

You are an optimist who ignores what has happened in the past with their predictions for better racing How many of their attempts at better racing have come to fruition?.

Jeremy

To answer your question (which you already know the answer!), the COT was garbage outside of being safer, and none of their efforts since have improved the racing product on track. They might be on to something if they also remove the front splitter, side skirts, the restrictor plates (aka tapered spacers), get the cars off the bumpstops, and ban teams from taping over any opening on the front of the car. Otherwise, high hopes and low expectations.

Last edited 2 years ago by Jeremy
Tom B

All good suggestions. So simple.

Bill B

Not a big step but I hated that 550 package, so at least we will try something different. We won’t know if it’s better or worse until June.

Echo

I hated that 550 also. I think the real wheelmen are going to figure this car out first. This package for sure will help Brad and Kurt Busch out for sure. Just to name a couple. If the car is truly in the driver’s hands, then some “racers” are going to be exposed as just drivers.

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