Elton Sawyer spills the beans to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the dealbreaker thats stopping new m

NASCAR currently host four Original Engine manufacturer’s, in Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota. Since Toyota entered the sport in 2004, no other OEM has joined the sport. NASCAR has been long trying to invite more brands to the sport, but often the technical regulations stop them from making move. But with the Next-Gen cars that was introduced in 2022, these efforts are seeing some positive result.  

There has been reports that some new manufacturer’s such as Honda and Hyundai are looking to enter the sport. But none of the negotiation has reached any concrete stages and recently NASCAR Senior VP Elton Sawyer spoke to Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the future of the sport with hybrid cars and why some brands are hesitating to join the sport.

He pointed out that for most OEM’s the Next-Gen car is great opportunity, but they don’t think it is sustainable to make a V8 pushrod engine for NASCAR and it seems to be the dealbreaker. So, the sanctioning body is looking to give the OEM’s another platform to grow as compensation for engine demand.

We need a platform that will invite some new OEMs to come and participate. They love the Next Gen car. The one thing they’re not going to do, is they’re not going to build a V8, pushrod engine. So, we have to continue to develop and look at different platforms and options that will be inviting to those OEMs. The conversations that our folks, John Probst in [development] and that group have had, that’s [a V8 pushrod engine] a dealbreaker right there.

Elton Sawyer highlights Toyota’s appreciative move while entering the sport

While talking about the challenges, Sawyer recalled how Toyota entered the sport and the sacrifices they made. He pointed out that TRD made engines specially for NASCAR on their entry to the spirt and deserves appreciation for the effort, considering the new manufactures are not willing to do it.  

Where when Toyota came in, they actually didn’t have that engine and developed it and built it for the trucks. So, kudos to them that’s just not the world we live in today.

NASCAR and new OEMs has to come up with new development plans to make the sport better when the enter. At the same time, they should make sure that such a move doesn’t hurt the current OEMs who has made a lot of investment into NASCAR.  

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