During the State of the Sport address ahead of the season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway on November 8th, 2024, NASCAR president Steve Phelps revealed some crucial information about manufacturers in the sport, both current and future. For starters, the sport wants to implement a system that would allow it to penalize manufacturers after Chevy attempted to manipulate a race, but there’s some less somber news as well. A fourth and maybe fifth manufacturer could enter the sport in the next few years, pitting NASCAR Ford teams against Chevy, Toyota, and other potential automakers.
Phelps explained that NASCAR is in talks with other original equipment manufacturers, which he refers to as OEs, outside of the Ford, Chevy, and Toyota camps. That’s not really surprising, as the sport has been trying to attract outside manufacturers for some time, but Phelps said that execs are getting “close” to sealing the deal.
“I would say is that we’re in different phases depending on the OEs,” Phelps said. “Right now we’re in discussion with several OEs about coming in. I won’t get into exactly where those are and who they are, but we have an OE that is close. That OE has buy-out from those that are in the racing portion of that. So it really just comes down to the business portion and can we strike a deal that is advantageous for them and for us? Are we the right fit for their brand? Are we not?”
Interestingly, Phelps went on to explain that in an ideal scenario, there would be five manufacturers with representation on track in NASCAR.
“But I’m cautiously optimistic, and then we need to being accelerate the other discussions we’ve had because I think in our opinion five is probably the right number of OEs,” he said.
Earlier this year, it seemed that NASCAR Ford team Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) was a candidate for a fourth manufacturer. The team’s agreement with Ford was set to expire at the end of the 2024 racing season, and Honda was expected to step up to the plate. That didn’t end up happening, as SHR closed its doors at the end of the 2024 racing season, selling off its charters.
Comments
If we had the same NASCAR we used to have there’d be multiple contenders, especially in what was known as the NASCAR “DASH” Series of the 1970’s/80’s. The small cars of the time, Ford Mustang II, Chevy Monza, Pontiac Sunbird to mention three.
Should the Dash Series come back we could see, Hyundai, Kia, Honda, among other Asian nameplates as well as European nameplates like Peugeot, Citroen, even Mercedes find their way into the world of NASCAR.
I’d love to see the DASH Series make a comeback to the Touring NASCAR Family. What made the Dash Series work was the cost to race was dramatically less. With that thought cost saving could make a comeback as it did when we had the Busch Grand National, that ran the same bodies that the Winston Cup Series ran but with V-6 engines instead of V-8 engines … I know as we sponsored the #51 BGN car with Luck’s Country Foods.
In closing … turn back to your roots NASCAR. You’ll be glad you did and your fan base will explode with new motor sports fans. That driver of the Honda Accord or Hyundai Sonota will be watching as they too will feel like that have skin on the game, just like I did when I got behind the wheel of my Chevrolet Lumina.
Yah