Filed under:
Motorsports,
Coupe,
Chevrolet,
GM,
Racing
We've been on the fence with
NASCAR for some time now. On one hand, it's some of the closest racing anywhere in motorsports, with actual passing and door-handle-to-door-handle action as a matter of course. But on the other, it's become template racing - a personality-driven sport more about the drivers than any sort of loyalty to a particular automaker. The
Car Of Tomorrow format really rammed that message home, with a racecar's identity coming down to little more than headlamp stickers slapped on the nose. That's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but we've wondered for some time what's in it for the automakers, who pay big money to stay in a series that has had little increasingly little do with street car sales, let alone innovation.
Apparently
General Motors was beginning to wonder the same thing. In a new
ESPN report,
Rick Hendrick, team owner of Hendrick Motorsports, suggests that GM would have seriously considered leaving NASCAR if it wasn't for the move away from the COT to the new Gen 6 racer. According to Hendrick, GM North America boss
Mark Reuss spearheaded the charge away from the 2007 COT and toward a racecar with clearer automaker ties - cars like the new
Chevrolet SS racer shown above. Learn more about the fight for a closer-to-production look in the
ESPN story at the link.
Now, if we could just get more rear-wheel drive V8 coupes into showrooms....
Chevy might've pulled out of NASCAR if it weren't for new Gen 6 car originally appeared on
Autoblog on Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:31:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
More...