Well, that was quick. The 2012 NASCAR banquet was held just 13 days ago, and now the off-season is effectively over with testing of the 2013 Sprint Cup cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Here’s a recap with tons of photos. (NASCAR photo)Â
The NASCAR-sanctioned. two-day test session gave teams a chance to further familiarize themselves with the revised 2013 Sprint Cup cars, which feature more stock-appearing bodywork. SIxteen cars took to the track, including several new combinations for next season: Penske Racing has switched from Dodge to Ford with drivers Joey Logano and Sprint Cup champ Brad Keselowski, and Matt Kenseth is now wheeling a Joe Gibbs Toyota.
This was also the first public track appearance for the 2013 Chevy SS Sprint Cup racers without their camouflage paint. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a big fan of the new-look cars. Â “The car has really awesome potential,” said Earnhardt after taking a half-dozen laps. “The cars that you see in the garage—you’ll stand there and see Fords and Toyotas and Chevrolets driving by. It’s great because everything looks different, everything is instantly recognizable.”
NASCAR officials seem equally pleased with the new cars. “All in all, the feedback in the garage area has been very positive,” says Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition. “It looks to me that all the hard work from the teams, manufacturers and our engineers at the R&D Center is going to pay off. Like I said last month when we hand this car off to the teams, it will be in the best shape that we have ever handed a car off to the teams to start a new season.”
By the way, NASCAR has settled upon an official label for the new machines: “sixth generation.” In this formulation, the generations of NASCAR stockers sort out like this: first gen 1948-1966; second gen 1967-1980; third gen 1981-1991; fourth gen 1992-2006; fifth gen 2007-2012.
With practice laps over 190 mph in the two-day session before rain ended the proceedings, speeds are already matching those of past years, and observers expect a number of track records to fall next year.  Teams will have two more open tests before the season begins: the Preseason Thunder event at Daytona International Speedway Jan. 10-12, followed by another session at Charlotte Motor Speedway Jan. 17-18.
In the slide show gallery below, you will find a few dozen images of the 2013 cars in action and around the garage area at Charlotte. Photo credits: Ford photos, Matthew T. Thacker for Autostock and Ford; NASCAR photos, Jared C. Tilton for Getty Images and NASCAR; CMS photos, HHP and Jonathan Coleman for Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Great story, MCG. You do a fine job covering the high points in NASCAR and filtering out the chaff. I applaud NASCAR for moving the cars back toward stock appearance. When I worked in NASCAR in the 80’s the cars weren’t the least bit stock but at least they had some factory panels. These cars have no stock panels but at least they look like actual cars. They were beginning to be more like NHRA funny cars.
I appreciate that Roger Penske put the full wrap on the #2 and #22. It’s all just decals today; would it hurt these guys to make their car look better than a high schooler’s primered Camaro beater? They knew there would be photos and sponsors are hard to come by. It makes sense to throw some free advertising their way.