Following Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling 235 at the Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR has confirmed on Monday that testing of the 2022 NextGen race car will now continue.
The car was originally slated to debut in 2021, but with the coronavirus pandemic, the NextGen was delayed until the 2022 season.
In a report from NASCAR.com, NASCAR confirms that Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer will turn some laps at The Monster Mile (Dover International Speedway) on Monday and Tuesday after this weekend’s action at the high-banked concrete oval.
Also, NASCAR has confirmed that IMSA team Action Express Racing had a test session in their own NASCAR NextGen prototype. The team has brought their IMSA driver Felipe Nasr and he will be joined in the test session by Team Penske’s Xfinity Series driver Austin Cindric.
According to NASCAR, this doesn’t mean Action Express Racing is moving to the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s merely to help with the stress testing of parts and components on the car and to compile data from a test at a different style of track.
“The Action Express test allows a sports car team to learn about the architecture of the Next Gen car and explore any opportunities to adopt new technologies,” said John Probst, NASCAR Senior VP of Innovation and Racing Development. “The test also benefits NASCAR — it helps us check the durability of parts, helps with tire development and gives us data from a road course test.”
Click here to read the full report from NASCAR.com on the upcoming NextGen testing.
