Former NASCAR driver and co-owner of JR Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has ridiculed the idea of having electric race cars in the sport’s second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly known as the Xfinity Series), saying “it would destroy the series.”
Electrification of motorsports is a highly debated topic, and while other forms of motorsports, such as Formula One, have embraced partial electrification (50%), electrifying NASCAR could have serious repercussions, according to Dale Jr.
There is also Formula E, which is an exclusive all-electric single-seater series comprising race cars that run entirely on batteries. While NASCAR could take that route through an all-new electric series, talks about introducing electric cars to the current race format have already begun.
NASCAR’s executive vice president, John Probst, said that introducing electric race cars in NASCAR’s tier-two series is one of the sport’s long-term goals.
NASCAR Already Developed an Electric Race Car Prototype Two Years Ago
NASCAR revealed an electric race car prototype in 2024, developed by ABB, that produces 1,341 horsepower and looks more like a crossover utility vehicle (CUV). According to a report by AutoBlog, the car is built on a 756-volt electrical architecture featuring a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery that sits on the right side of the floor to mimic the handling of a gas-powered car.
The other components, such as the rack and pinion steering, double wishbone suspension, and 18-inch wheels, have been carried over from a Cup Series car.
Probst stated back then that an electric NASCAR series could happen in the future. He revealed:
“At this point, I would say it’s probably premature for me to speculate on [an EV series]. We’ve worked with our OEM partners to figure out what that would look like, but that’s down the road.”
NASCAR’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series to Undergo Electrification?
Probst revealed that the O’Reilly Series struggles with a brand identity, and fielding electric cars could help in that direction. He said:
“If you look at the brand identity of those three, the O’Reilly Series struggles a little bit just from the car perspective and you see it a lot because we refer to it often as whoever the entitlement sponsor is.”
Probst suggested that bringing electric race cars into NASCAR’s tier two division is part of the sport’s evolution in the 2030s. Hinting that NASCAR could develop the electric car on the lines of the 2024 prototype built in partnership with ABB, he said:
“Long term, you see it as, we do have that CUV body that we developed for our electric vehicle. I’m not sitting here saying today we’re breaking news it’s going to CUV, but these are the things that are on the roadmap to consider, so you’d have a Truck, a CUV and a Cup, that’s three very different bodies that are relevant for our OEMs today to create that brand identity for each series.”
Dale Jr. Opposes the Electrification of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Dale Jr. revealed on his Dale Jr. Download podcast that introducing electric cars to the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series could end its growth. He said:
“The O’Reilly Series has got a lot of good things going right now. Viewership is continuously on the rise and our cars, we can all kind of relate to those cars when we look at them and we see them on the racetrack. I think making a switch to anything unlike what we have would be a massive, massive mistake and it would probably be the end of the rise.”
He added:
“Things are going well. We got a great TV partner, we got great numbers, we got great fan engagement, and I think any kind of change like that so dramatic as that would be, would destroy the series as we know it.”
