Michael Satterfield
Ahead of the 12 Hours of Sebring NASCAR, IMSA, Hendrick Motorsports, Automobile Club de l’Ouest, and Goodyear Tires announced that a modified version of the Next Gen stock car would be running in the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Camaro ZL1 Next Gen would take the Garage 56 slot, a place designed for innovative vehicles outside of the race’s standard classes. Chad Knaus, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of competition, is heading the project. Knaus has seven Cup Series championships under his belt, as a crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, Knaus has long wanted to take a team to Le Mans and finally has been given the chance with this Garage 56 entry.
The Garage 56 entry was launched in 2012 to highlight innovative cars that fell outside of the race’s normal classifications and the race’s 55-car limit. The Nex Gen car cannot compete for the overall win, but it will be scored and its lap times tracked in the official results. Past Garage 56 entries have included the ZEOD RC, the hydrogen-powered H2 Prototype, and now a NASCAR.
Believe it or not this is not the first time that NASCAR has taken on the Circuit de la Sarthe, back in 1976 NASCAR founder Bill France Sr, convinced race organizers to add the Grand International Class, which would allow for two NASCARs to take part in the race, a Dodge Charger driven by Hershel McGriff and his son Doug, and a Ford Torino driven by Richard Brooks Dick Hutcherson, and Marcel Mignon. Both NASCARs joined the 29 other cars that did not finish the race, but history was made and the site of the two massive NASCAR racing alongside Lola T292s and Mirage GR8s prompted the French media to call them “the two big monsters.”
Hendrick, like all NASCAR teams, has only had a few races with the new Next Gen car, so how it will hold up for 24 hours of contact running at Le Mans. Watch the full press conference on YouTube.
