NASCAR sets meeting to detail debut of new-model car
Plans for the NASCAR Nationwide Series car of tomorrow, seen testing at Richmond International Raceway, will be announced in a meeting July 28. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
MADISON, Ill. – NASCAR will host Nationwide Series owners and drivers at a meeting at its research and development center in Concord, N.C., on July 28 to inform them of plans to roll out the car of tomorrow for the 2010 season, series director Joe Balash confirmed Saturday.
NASCAR already has informally told teams the new car will be used on restrictor-plate tracks and road courses next year. The July 28 meeting will officially detail the use of the car.
“They’re going to have a big meeting, and they’re going to tell us there,” Rensi-Hamilton Racing President Ronnie Russell said Saturday. “But it appears it’s all the speedway races and the road-course races.”
The car will debut at Daytona International Speedway next February and will also run at Daytona again in July, as well as at Talladega Superspeedway and the two road courses likely on the schedule: Montreal and Watkins Glen.
Aerodynamic testing has been completed on all four model cars, and NASCAR is working on its template grid for inspecting the cars.
Track testing is likely to take place after the October Sprint Cup race at Talladega, despite NASCAR’s testing ban this season. The car has been track tested twice, at Richmond and Charlotte last year, but only by a few teams.
Most Nationwide teams don’t have a COT, and some teams will likely buy old Cup chassis and convert the bodies to Nationwide specs.
