Search
Close this search box.

Partner

Kurt Busch on NextGen Car After Testing the Roval: ‘It’s Fun, It’s Exciting and Different’

share it
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Kurt Busch drives the NASCAR Next Gen car during the NASCAR Cup Series test at Charlotte Motor Speedway on November 16, 2020 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Kurt Busch climbed out of the NASCAR NextGen prototype after the first day of a two-day test at Charlotte Motor Speedway with rave reviews of the next style of car poised to appear in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2022.

After spending a day, turned into night, of driving at the Charlotte Roval in the NextGen car, Busch was very excited about the new transmission in the NextGen, which is a six-speed sequential gear box instead of the standard four-speed H-pattern that has been used in NASCAR basically since 1949.

Busch also was bullish on the brake package being larger, which brings the car to a much quicker stop around a course such as the Charlotte Roval. In summary, Busch feels the new car is different and that’s what the 2004 NCS champion likes the most.

“But, overall, the car’s first impression is that it’s fun, it’s exciting and different, and I encourage everybody to dig into it to find its differences and to respect the process that NASCAR is going through to implement all these new, exciting components,” Busch explained.

So, what new components, aside from the transmission and brakes can we expect?

“A new front bulkhead, a new rear bulkhead, and, overall, the cars driving and its feel,” Busch said. “Out on the Roval, it feels like I’m qualifying every lap because of how impressive the lap times are and how much grip the car has in certain spots of the race track.”

The quickness of the car is something that Busch is not exaggerating about. In a prototype, which hasn’t been totally fiddled with to gain the most on-track speed by individual teams, Busch and Truex were turning unofficial timed laps around the Roval in the 84-second range early in the day, while the fastest laps in the last NCS event at the Roval were in the 85-second range, or slower. Busch would tweet after the session that the NextGen had actually gotten to three seconds faster than the Gen6 car by the end of the test on Monday.

There’s a definite speed advantage in the NextGen car.

Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who spent Monday on the Roval testing different components on the two NextGen prototypes (one built by NASCAR and Richard Childress Racing and one built by IMSA’s Action Express Racing) will return on Wednesday to test the same two cars on the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway oval.

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Post

TG_XFIN_MV_RACE_CSmith_PitsB
Chandler Smith Added to 2025 Truck Lineup for Front Row Motorsports
AG-IsabellaRobusto-Practice-A
Isabella Robusto Tapped for Full ARCA Schedule with Venturini Motorsports
Harrison's 2025
Harrison's Backing Jeremy Clements in Four 2025 Xfinity Races
TGillilandE
NASCAR Appealing Injunction Ruling; Asking for Partial Stay from Court
GfP-AReXQAAz9uT
Joe Williams Named Crew Chief of Alpha Prime Racing No. 4
Garrett Smithley joins SS-GreenLight Racing for full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule in 2025 as driver of No. 14 Chevrolet
Garrett Smithley Joins SS-GreenLight Racing Full-Time in 2025

Join Our Newsletter

Ready to have NASCAR news hand-delivered to your email daily?

Related Article