By Jerry Jordan, Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Action Express Racing organization, founded by NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France, was up early Monday morning testing their own version of NASCAR’s Generation 7 racecar, Kickin’ the Tires has confirmed.
During a paid track tour, the Action Express hauler was observed parked next to a Goodyear Racing hauler in the Xfinity Series garage. Several crew members were seen walking back and forth to the garage area but then a matte black racecar with red accents drove away and took to the recently revamped road course using the new chicane on the front stretch. The car was believed to be driven by IMSA driver Felipe Nasr, according to multiple sources.
Nasr is a Brazilian-born racecar driver, who co-drives the No. 31 Cadillac Dpi for Action Express Racing with fellow-Brazilian Pipo Derani. He and Eric Curran won the Prototype Championship during Nasr’s first year with Action Express Racing in 2018.
Reached for comment, NASCAR sent a response from Senior Vice President for Innovation and Racing Development, John Probst, confirming the Action Express vehicle test but stated that it was not part of a sanctioned event or affiliated with the NASCAR sanctioning body.
“The Action Express test allows a sports car team to learn about the architecture of the Next Gen car and explore any opportunities to adopt new technologies. The test also benefits NASCAR – it helps us check the durability of parts, helps with tire development and gives us data from a road course test,” the statement from Probst read.
Action Express built the car on its own car and rented the track to conduct the private test, according to multiple sources.
Officially, NASCAR will hold a test of its new Gen 7 car next week after the race at Dover International Speedway. One of the good things that could come from Action Express having its own version of the Gen 7 is that NASCAR can now acquire twice as much data and conduct multicar tests ahead of its rollout of the new racecar scheduled for 2022.
One notable difference between the Action Express Gen 7 car at Daytona and the cars that raced a day before on the road course was the sound of the engine. The engine in the Action Express car was much deeper, or throatier, than the current Cup Series cars.
Photos by Jerry Jordan/Kickin’ the Tires
“Action Express built the car on its own car” what does this mean? Did they put a Next-gen body on a DPI? A Typo?
No. They took the specs from NASCAR and built their own car, just like any other team in the Cup garage would. They invested their own resources, according to sources, and did it to help.
Enjoyed your report and the photos. Thanks Jerry!
I guess it is hard to put a watermark on.
I shouldn’t have to put a watermark on my photos, especially when I have them on a trademarked website. Those photos are copyright protected, as is every photo, document and article on here. They belong to me through my ownership of Kickin’ the Tires — Jerry Jordan, Editor
So this was a way for Chevrolet to get around NASCAR’s ban on testing?
It’s my understanding that Cup teams can only test the Gen 7, or even current Cup cars, at official NASCAR sanctioned tests, but as an IMSA team that does not currently compete in NASCAR, Action Point isn’t subject to the test ban. I’m guessing that by having one of their affiliated, non NASCAR race teams, build a Gen 7 car and test it, this allows Chevrolet to “legally” further develop their Gen 7 car, and pass on what’s learned to their Cup Teams. It all sounds pretty sneaky, and ingenious, to me.
My understanding was that the chassis were coming from Dallara’s US facility and the specs
for the car are proprietary to NASCAR. I mean an average civilian can’t even get a copy of
NASCAR’s rule book. So no one can claim this is an arms length transaction. Like everything
NASCAR does it reeks of self-indulging nepotism.