The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car

NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time

NASCAR's revolutionary Next Gen Cup Series car has had something of a baptism of fire, with last Sunday's Daytona 500 on the 190mph high banks a world away from the LA Coliseum's quarter-mile oval where the car made its debut earlier this month.

The new machine's single-supplier, common-component ethos forms the seventh generation of stock car at the premier level since 1948 and comes at a time when cost savings need to be made. These outlier tracks have proved the concept's flexibility; while teams will still assemble multiple cars for use on short tracks, intermediates and superspeedways – NASCAR's punishing 36-round schedule means they need multiple cars in rotation in a logistical puzzle – they simply won't build as many as before.

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Author Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley is Chief Editor of Autosport US. After spending five years in the aerospace industry in his native North Wales, while working weekends as a freelance writer at racetracks around the UK, Charles joined the staff of Motoring News in the heart of London. He transferred to the nascent Autosport.com team in 2000 before transitioning to the magazine, becoming its Editor between 2011 and 2014. Charles then upped sticks to work in America, as Motorsport.com’s Editor in Chief, where he created the multi-national and multi-lingual editorial team that quickly became the world’s most-read motorsport website. He was instrumental in delivering three of the biggest Global F1 Fan Surveys in sports history and is also a multiple award-winning scriptwriter. Charles is an overseas member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and lives in Miami Beach with his wife Helen – and a cat that’s named after Serbia’s top football club.