Car FYI

Photo Credit: ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images With the start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, competitors racing with the Chevrolet bow tie will be running an unmarked vehicle. Of course, fans of the sport will instantly recognize the car as the sixth generation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that has raced since 2018 and since 2022 in the form of the Gen 7 stock car, there is no mention of the Camaro name on the vehicle for 2025. The discontinuation of the production Chevrolet Camaro following the 2024 model year prompted the adjustment to how the brand’s vehicles would be represented in racing. Running what is essentially an obsolete car for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, the Chevrolet contingent are not the first teams to compete with cars no longer running off assembly lines. From the foundation of NASCAR in 1948 to the 1970s, Cup races would commonly feature cars across several model years but a Grand National Series (later Cup Series) rule required that cars be based...

Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images untitled NASCAR is officially preparing to usher in a brave new path for their top-tier Cup Series with the introduction of their 7 th generation vehicle plan. In a press conference with examples of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, the Ford Mustang and the Toyota Camry in the long-developed Next Gen stock car specifications set to debut next season, there was a deep sense of optimism amongst various parties involved. Key people with NASCAR including the sporting body’s president Steve Phelps, representatives from all three manufacturers as well as drivers Chase Elliott, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin were present at an event detailing what will be a drastically different path in Cup Series racing. With almost two years of testing, fans of NASCAR had been bracing for the details of the Next Gen race car that would put to rest many traditions in the premier stock car racing league. Though the future NASCAR Cup Series stock car...

  Photo Credit: James Gilbert/Getty Images untitled On Wednesday of this week (May 5 th of 2021), NASCAR will formally present the sport’s newest Cup Series chariot. Originally called the Gen 7 car before adopting the moniker of the Next Gen car, the vehicle was initially planned to be part of the 2021 racing season but was pushed to 2022 due to the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupting development as well as team finances to implement the Next Gen car. From the details already leaked about the Next Gen car, the 2022 Cup season is destined to deliver the biggest learning curve ever to drivers, team and fans. Ahead of the official unveiling of the car, indications of a new spec chassis, six-speed manual transmission, independent rear suspension as well as a larger diameter, single-lug wheels are radically going to reshape the operations of NASCAR Cup Series teams on and off the track. With anticipation building towards the planned on-track...

Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images The Toyota Camrys prepared by Joe Gibbs Racing were the toast of Texas for much of the Duck Commander 500 on Saturday night. In a race where three of the four Joe Gibbs owned cars and the associated Furniture Row Racing #78 car led for all but 15 of 334 laps, the one who triumphed at the end only truly showed his hand late on the fast Fort Worth, Texas track. The 500-mile race at the Texas Motor Speedway started after a roughly two-hour delay. Leading the field to green, the Stanley-sponsored Toyota wheeled by Carl Edwards led 57 of the first 57 laps of the race. On lap 59, Edward’s main adversary for the night emerged in the form of the black #78 Toyota Camry. Martin Truex Jr started 3rd in the field and kept his Furniture Row Racing car in the top-5 for almost the entire race. Thanks to a long green flag running from lap 34 to 136 (totalling more than half the race’s scheduled distance), Truex Jr held the lead for an impre...

Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company The blue oval brigade will gain a powerful, new ally for the 2017 NASCAR season. On Wednesday morning, Ford Performance (the motorsport and special vehicle arm of Ford Motor Company) announced the addition of Stewart-Haas Racing to their brand for next year's Cup Series. Stewart-Haas Racing has signed a multi-year deal with the auto company to field four Ford Fusion stock cars starting with the 2017 Daytona 500. “We are thrilled to be able to add a championship-level team like Stewart-Haas Racing to our Ford NASCAR program,” said Ford Motor Company's executive vice president and Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair. Stewart-Haas Racing will join Penske Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Wood Brothers Racing and Front Row Motorsports as NASCAR Cup organizations to be gathered under the 2017 Ford line-up. Ford Fusion-bodied Stewart-Haas Racing cars will be supplied by the same Roush Yates Engines V-8 powerplants used by t...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy Just 400 miles are all that remains of 2015 competition in the top stock car racing series in the world. The conclusion of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season at Homestead-Miami Speedway once again guarantees 43 drivers will attempt to take the checkered flag for the last event of the year. Four drivers enter the race with the opportunity of being crowned the series champion, depending on the outcome at Homestead-Miami Speedway. For the majority of the field though, victory or defeat is simply a reason to come back next year. Jeff Gordon has a chance of claiming the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup title but has planned the outcome to this race that will hold a note of permanency to a career of 23 years. Jeff Gordon will be starting this race vehicle’s engine for the final time in competition. The #24 Chevrolet SS fielded by Hendrick Motorsports final drive by the currently four-time champion in NASCAR’s top series is forged with some impressive superstar creden...

Photo Credit; Royal Canadian Mint Canada's history with NASCAR competition has been a colourful affair. Richard Petty winning his first Cup division series race at the old CNE Speedway in Toronto in 1959, the late Earl Ross' first and currently only Cup victory by a Canadian on the ever-popular Martinsville Speedway in 1974 and Ron Fellows' six road racing wins in two of the stock car racing series' three major touring divisions have been moments the patriotic red and white fans of motorsports have been proud of. This season, Calgary, Alberta native Cameron Hayley's rookie season effort in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and crew chief of the #78 Furniture Row Racing Cole Pearn have shown future greatness is in the cards. As the 2015 NASCAR racing season is nearing a close, the Royal Canadian Mint has put some definition to the popular racing spectacle with the release of a detailed silver medallion. Struck in 1 oz., 99.99% pure silver, the royal Ca...

Photo Credit: Axalta When Jeff Gordon debuted in NASCAR Cup Series competition in the final race in 1992, it was difficult to miss the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Under sponsorship of DuPont Performance Coatings, the stock car not only wore the name of the popular paint company but its product. A multi-colour paint scheme accompanied by rainbows on the hood and side panels proved innovatively eye-catching in a period when the majority of professional stock car teams relied largely on a single colour. Created by now-famed motorsport artist Sam Bass, DuPont, Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Gordon gained immediate notoriety. The #24 DuPont Chevrolet rainbow paint design's initial dazzle was eventually met with equally stunning performances on the track by the driver that would become one of the most winningest competitors in the NASCAR Cup Series. A memorable part of Jeff Gordon's stock car racing career, the Rainbow paint scheme will make one final appear...

Automobiles are an emotional expression of what harbours inside us. While this moth's scene at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show was full industry-driven passion, no amount of marketing or focus groups can capture how a customer falls in love with their vehicle. Sometimes it is through understanding the feelings of a vehicle's designer when we can grasp what makes us love our beloved. Car FYI's Car of the Month award recognises this heartfelt connection residing in this culture. Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending a feast of automotive expression at Toronto's International Centre. The 2015 Motorama Custom Car & Motorsport Expo featured the coming together of expression and speed. Familiarized with the new car world where automotive creativity is defined by items manufactured in hundreds of thousands in some cases, the show was a chance to witness some rare and one of a kind vehicles. For this article, I must single-out one creation that made it s...

Photo Credit: Hendrick Motorsports Dale Earnhardt coined him 'Wonder Boy'; some called him the 'Rainbow Warrior'; no nickname has really stuck despite his constant appearance in the NASCAR Cup series for the past 22 seasons. Fans of the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet identify him as their favourite athlete; A strong anti-fan base over the years has called him much worse things. For 2015, we will all acknowledge Jeff Gordon for the final time as an active full-time driver in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition. On Thursday, an announcement affirmed that 43-year-old Jeff Gordon will be stepping out of the driver's seat of stock car competition after one more season. Winning the NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) four times in his career, Gordon took his #24 Chevrolet to victory on 93 occasions so far (most of those races driving a multi-coloured car sponsored by Dupont). Third all-time in race wins since 1949 behind Richard Petty and David Pearson, Jeff Gor...