During the first day of a two-day test session for the NASCAR Cup Series’ brand-new car at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s ROVAL, NASCAR provided an outline of their current testing plans for the Next Gen car throughout the conclusion of the year, and into the beginning of 2022. The additional testing sessions will be a mixture of organizational tests and tire tests.
NASCAR’s testing plan – at this time — includes three scheduled organizational test sessions at Charlotte Motor Speedway (November 17 – 18), Phoenix Raceway (December 14 – 15), and Daytona International Speedway (January 11 – 12).
Additional organizational testing sessions will be set up at Martinsville Speedway, Kansas Speedway or Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and another short track or road course that NASCAR has yet to officially determined. NASCAR says that Martinsville’s test session will take place following the half-mile track’s race weekend in April, while the intermediate track test would take place prior to the track’s first race weekend.
In order to prepare for the first-ever NASCAR Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in February 2022, the first NASCAR-sanctioned event that will see the Next Gen car in action, competition officials have elected to carry out a Goodyear tire test at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The quarter-mile bullring resembles the configuration of the facility that will be developed inside of the LA Memorial Coliseum and remains in close proximity to home for the drivers and teams that will test the car.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Stewart Friesen will test the capabilities of the Next Gen car on dirt on November 16 at , a banked half-mile dirt track in Rural Retreat, Virginia that carries the most resemblance to what NASCAR Cup Series drivers will face during the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Race on Easter Sunday.
Prior to Atlanta Motor Speedway’s race weekend next Spring, NASCAR will host a Goodyear tire test at the newly-reconfigured intermediate track, allowing drivers and teams of the NASCAR Cup Series to get some extra on-track time before the historic race weekend begins.
