Be it racing in NASCAR or owning a NASCAR team; the business has always been expensive in the arena of stock car racing. Needless to say, the cars are perhaps the biggest assets for every NASCAR team out there. But given that these cars are specially made to withstand hours of adverse driving conditions, one might ask why the cars are not driven to the racetrack rather than having a gigantic hauler carry them.
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The answer was explained clearly in a Joe Gibbs Racing video. “The haulers keep the cars safe during transport,” the video narrated. “We wouldn’t want something to happen to the car on the way there and not have it for the race.” NASCAR hosts races in various corners of the country. Hence, driving the cars all the way to the racetrack before the race even starts is not a wise idea, as it would unnecessarily incur wear and tear on its parts and pieces.
Furthermore, stock cars are nothing like the usual street cars. “The headlights are just stickers. There’s no airbags, no side mirrors, the car is too loud and there’s no registration or license plate,” they added. This means it would take a lot of work to get the cars street-legal.
On top of that, these cars do not have any tread on the tires and neither do they have windshield wipers. So, rain would cause a lot of problems. To top it all off, NASCAR cars often get wrecked to an extent where they cannot be carried back to the shop. It is then that the haulers come to the rescue.
Denny Hamlin throws light on the price of the Next-Gen stock cars
After knowing how important these cars are to the NASCAR teams, one might also wonder how much these cars cost. On that note, veteran Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin compared the next-gen cars to Lamborghinis.
“Now this is a rough estimate, but I think it’s closer to accurate than not,” said Hamlin, “the Next Gen cars probably, all in, with the parts, pieces, all the other stuff you have to purchase to actually make it roll and a driver sit in it, we’re probably around $350,000. We’re racing Lambos out there.”
That is exactly why if there is a wreck on the track, several other team owners, including the 23XI owner, pray that it is not their car. Because with the wreckage of a car comes a huge financial setback. The Next-Gen cars are surely more durable than normal cars, but when it comes to some of the most gruesome crashes out there, they are not that immune after all.
