At 75 years old, NASCAR is experimenting with electric propulsion

NASCAR, the oldest and most popular American motor racing competition, is embracing electric technology and will soon unveil its first prototype.

If you’re not familiar with NASCAR, no worries. This incredibly popular sport in the United States has never really succeeded in exporting outside of its continent. But you may have heard about it this year if you followed the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro was entered as part of the Garage 56 initiative, which aims to introduce new technologies or disciplines to the Le Mans crowd. The Chevrolet even managed to outpace some Ferraris, Porsches, and Aston Martins, proving that a straightforward recipe works. A very sturdy chassis and a big internal combustion engine!

The concept of NASCAR is a tubular chassis car with a very basic carbon body powered by a massive V8 engine producing up to 800 horsepower. No doors, no headlights, just the essentials to go super fast. Line up 40 cars in a single file on an oval track where they can surpass 320 km/h bumper to bumper, and you’ve got pure spectacle.

This year, NASCAR celebrated its 75th anniversary and is undergoing a major reevaluation. Long seen as a discipline for big brawlers, and a NASCAR fan will tell you the same, it has cleaned up its image. It has opened up to a younger audience and focused on increasing access for minorities and women. All of this without positive discrimination, but on merit. The best driver on the track or in the pits deserves their place more than anyone.

Then there’s the technological side, which is still very much in the 20th century. Sure, the massive V8s are fueled with ethanol guaranteed to be 100% sustainable, but knowing a bit about American agriculture, nothing is ever fully eco-friendly. There was talk for a time about a new generation of hybrid cars, but on an oval, the most common type of track which dominates the season, where you spend 90% of the time at full throttle, what’s the point?

On the other hand, a fully electric motorization for constant speed makes sense! A prototype is already undergoing a major development program. The car reportedly completed 340 laps in three days on the half-mile (800m) Martinsville oval. According to multiple sources, the prototype was only “a few tenths” of the times of current cars.

This first-ever fully electric NASCAR will be unveiled to the public at the “Clash at The Coliseum” event in Los Angeles on February 4th. Let’s see how the very conservative audience will welcome it…

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