Former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace has expanded on John Probst’s latest comments about the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and switch to electric vehicles.
NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Probst said that the sport is looking at its electric prototype, built with Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota, and is weighing whether that kind of crossover utility vehicle could one day fit the second-tier series. He also said NASCAR plans to try a hydrogen combustion engine in the next five years.
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In the latest episode of his podcast, Coffee with Kenny, Wallace mentioned the fans’s worry about the shift to electric racing and asked them to not blame NASCAR but look at the OEMs for their push toward cleaner cars. He mentioned his trips to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz factories in Europe and the strong focus on going green.
“These are automakers that want their cars to use less gas. It’s not so much the government. It is a little bit, but I mean everything they do in Europe, everything is about a damn wooden straw or a wooden spoon or, you know, they’re just the automakers are ate up with the electric vehicles,” Kenny Wallace said (08:09 onwards).
“So, in ending, don’t blame it all on NASCAR. I can promise you promise you that the automakers are just twisting NASCAR’s arm and that’s the bottom line. So they’re saying maybe four more years the O’Reilly auto parts would be electric.”
NASCAR revealed the ABB NASCAR EV Prototype at the Chicago Street Race in July 2024. The car used three electric motors, a 78-kWh battery, and all-wheel drive. The prototype also appeared at Hickory Motor Speedway.
“We don’t need to be on the absolute bleeding edge of powertrain technology” – NASCAR executive on balance between fan and OEM expectations
John Probst, who joined NASCAR in 2016 after working with Ford Motor Co., has said that it was important to balance entertainment, since fans still want loud and fast engines with relevant technology, as car companies now focus on cleaner vehicles.
“There is certainly a needle to be threaded there along the line of entertainment and sport, and maybe you can even go beyond sport and just say pure engineering. I think for us, I feel like we don’t need to be on the absolute bleeding edge of powertrain technology to be relevant to our OEMs and also be entertaining to our fans,” John Probst told Sports Business Journal.
NASCAR’s current V-8 internal combustion engine might become a challenge to manage with OEMs and the balance between technology and fan expectations. After F1’s controversial switch to hybrid engines this season, fans are not ready for a similar change in NASCAR.
Edited by Hitesh Nigam
