The veil was pulled off the NASCAR EV prototype race car late last week, showing the world what the future of motorsport could look like wrapped up in a crossover-style body with an all-electric all-wheel-drive powertrain. Thus far, its reception has been lukewarm at best, widely panned by fans and even eliciting negative reactions from some of the sport’s insiders. Even so, as automakers push toward full electrification, stock car racing will likely follow suit, but NASCAR Ford Performance manager Pat DiMarco says there’s plenty of time to get used to the idea.
In a report from NASCAR.com, DiMarco weighed in on the NASCAR EV announcement. Change is coming down the pike, like it or not, but it’s unlikely to take root anytime soon. It will be a slow, measured process. In other words, fans don’t need to worry about the Cup Series going electric in the immediate future – but that doesn’t mean it should be written off completely.
“The Daytona 500 will (feature) an internal combustion engine for well beyond my (time),” DiMarco said. “So it’s going to be a balance, right? The experience may be good, may be bad, depending on how you look at it. It’s an unknown. We got to work through it. And that’s what this is. It’s educating and taking the feedback from the race fans as to, is this something that they want? Is this something that they like? And is this something that us as the OEMs want to pursue even further?”
One of the biggest criticisms surrounding the NASCAR EV project is that of its potential range. Electric vehicles, especially race cars, just don’t have the tech yet to go 500 miles at speed without a charge or all-out battery swap. In the interim, DeMarco said running electric race cars for shorter stints to test their range is the answer.
“But can we go race, you know, for 30 minutes, 45 minutes at a short track? Yeah,” he said. “Is that a long enough race to go do something? Probably. Nitro Rallycross and some of the World Rally Cross stuff run short races to give people time to watch. Do you want to go to the Daytona 500 (with EVs)? No. A mile-and-a-half (track), you’re not gonna run for as long as you are. But you know, just seeing where the technology goes to dictate how we as OEMs in NASCAR roll it in.”
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Comments
Electric, old women driven, crossover race cars, brought to you by the out of touch Boomers at the WEF.
You’re a moron.
“We would like to congratulate Barb on winning the Daytona 50 today in her Mach E! She drove it here today all the way from Boca, although her grandson had to help part of the way. Under the new NASCAR points system, she received extra points towards the cup for driving it 13 mph under the speed limit in the pits.”
That’s hilarious.
But, ask the drivers and they want nothing to do with it. Ford is SO out of touch with reality. On everything these days.
It sounds to me like they’re going to implement this change over time, whether the buying public wants it or not. I could see them doing a slow roll so that by the time its completely converted (a couple generations) the public will have changed to EV as well. I only way I see EV’s dominating public sales is if electricity cost are well below that of gasoline and battery and capacitor technology has drastically improved.
How many times will elites have to tell you to like, love, and buy EVs before you actually do it!? It is hard to fathom the billions and billions of dollars that have been wasted trying to get people to like EVs. If there was ever a proof point for a global conspiracy against humanity, this huge waste of EV money is it.
Thats what happens when you allow the government too much control over an industry.
When the Cup races are run with EVs, I’m done with NASCAR !!
They can race EVs all they want, but they cannot make anyone watch them or pay to attend any races. They’ve contrived to make racing so boring now, most of the time anyway that I’ll miss viewing sometimes. I already record & fast forward past the idiotic commercials. I’m okay with them switching to EV as I’ll not be watching/recording & have more time of weekends for my other interests.
So many naysayers again! You remind me if the very old horse owners that were against the first gasoline automobiles over a hundred years ago. You have that type of obsolete mentality! Electric car racing is coming to take over. Just like transistors took over the vacuum tube technology in the 1960s, integrated circuits took over transistors in the 1980s, and now mobile phones took over the desktop computers in this century, EVs wil take over the obsolete ICEVs now. You cannot stop changes! Either accept it or get left behind!
Want sugar or Sweet N’ Low with that Kool Aid?
EVO,
You have obviously swallowed the Kool-Aid. I work at a Ford dealership, and we can’t give EV’s away. The public doesn’t want them. The government makes the manufacture push them on the dealers, and we have to take them or they wii restrict lines that we can sell. Sounds like blackmail to me.
As far as NASCAR going to EV’s. When they say, gentlemen start your engine(motors), who will know!!! That will be the end of that sport .
Let’s think this through. If they put a battery in a car large enough to last a 500 mile race, the car will weigh so much that they’ll need tires every 20 laps. Should that car have a crash, that multi ton battery will kill the driver of the car it impacted. Should the battery pack catch fire, the race will be done because the battery fire will take hours to extinguish.
One the other hand, if they go for lighter smaller battery packs, the race will extend for hours upon hours while the racers drain the local power grid pulling into pit row to plug in. Perhaps they will develop swappable batteries, and the pit crew will try to deal with connecting and disconnecting the power couplings on the battery.
Next, no one want to go to a Nascar race to hear the sounds of electric blenders going down the track. They are there for the second loudest sound on the plant short of the Big Bang.
EV Nascar, maybe as a sideshow lithe the truck series, but if it is the main show, Nascar is cooked. Ford has its management brain so far up their electrified backsides they’s shocked their brains numb.