With the world moving towards carbon-neutral means of transportation, it won’t be long before motorsports has to follow suit. NASCAR has been diligent about that possibility and has already worked on an electric prototype stock car. Development began in 2022 and was finalized towards the end of 2023. With former racer David Ragan put to the task of testing the car at the Martinsville Speedway in December, he has now shared his thoughts on what the car is like.
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He said on Wednesday’s Media Day ahead of the Daytona 500, “I was surprised that the couple of tests that we did went so well. When you design a new car from the ground up and you outsource parts from all around the world that’s a challenge.” The biggest reasons behind Ragan’s surprise were the torque that the car carried and its regeneration capabilities.
Talking about the experience, his words were: “The acceleration coming off the corner at Martinsville, when the torque and the power are turned up, I’ve never felt acceleration that fast in my life.” Ragan continued that it was the fastest he’d ever accelerated solely because of the all-wheel drive and the torque that the machine-generated. “It doesn’t have a transmission and a driveshaft to go through. It’s just immediate power,” he said.
David Ragan says it was disappointing that rain at the Clash canceled NASCAR’s scheduled demonstration of the EV stock car he was going to drive
Ragan says they’ve just scratched the surface of what the car is capable of, but says the balance is similar to a standard Cup car pic.twitter.com/AYO2g4AHHS
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) February 14, 2024
From Ragan’s notes, it appears that NASCAR has developed quite the future-ready race car. The car can go speeds as tall as the regular car (200 mph) and not make nearly as much noise. According to the driver, one can easily have a conversation around the track amid the race.
NASCAR officials on when the EV car will be seen on the racing grid
When NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell confirmed that NASCAR had built its first EV prototype at the State of the Sport address last November, he said, “A lot of work has gone on at the R&D department around EV.”
He added, “We have a car, we have an alternative body style with that car. I would not look at us to specifically go racing with it. I think you could see it showcased at certain events next year.”
Aligning with his words, talks of the car debuting on the big stage at the Busch Light Clash ran around before the pre-season opener. But that never happened courtesy of the bad weather in Los Angeles. O’Donnell and other officials are currently traveling worldwide to look at the various series that have adopted alternative fuel vehicles to develop future solutions and present them to NASCAR fans. Hopes on all fronts are that the promotion lifts the curtains on its developments soon.
