Next Gen (NASCAR)

The Next Gen car, originally known as the Gen-7 car, is the common name for the racecar that is currently in use in the NASCAR Cup Series. Its use began with the 2022 season. A further evolution of the Generation 6 car, the Next Gen features "improved" aero and downforce packages while introducing new technologies on the track. In addition, the Next Gen is designed to lower costs and attract new original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to compete with Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota.

The Next Gen body style was set to debut at the 2021 Daytona 500, but when the COVID-19 pandemic postponed all NASCAR racing (and therefore, testing) until the month of May, the sanctioning body announced that the debut of the car would be pushed back a year to 2022.

Prior to the 2022 Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Chevrolet clinched its 41st manufacturers' championship and the first in the Next Gen era. At the conclusion of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, Joey Logano of Team Penske claimed his second Cup Series championship and became the Next Gen era's first champion.

The rules package of the 2019 season served as the starting point of the Next Gen's development. The prototype, built by Richard Childress Racing using a generic body, was tested for the first time on October 8–9 by driver Austin Dillon at Richmond Raceway.

The second test of the car was done at Phoenix Raceway on December 9–10 with Joey Logano behind the wheel. Erik Jones drove the car in its third test, which was held at Homestead–Miami Speedway on January 15–16.

The fourth test was at Auto Club Speedway with William Byron on March 2–3. John Probst, NASCAR's senior vice president of racing innovation, commented that the "P3" prototype Byron tested was nearly 100 percent of the final product.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all racing was postponed through the month of May. Further testing that was scheduled to take place at Atlanta Motor Speedway with Clint Bowyer on March 16–17 was still on since the Next Gen testing was exempted from NASCAR's indefinite ban on all testing. However, this decision was quickly reversed because of the situation as the Atlanta weekend was postponed shortly after the Rudy Gobert incident at an NBA game days prior that led to NASCAR's decision on postponement. A handful of manufacturers, teams, and drivers alike indicated their hope for the debut of the car to be postponed one year to 2022 as a result of the lost testing time. On March 30, 2020, it was reported that NASCAR was taking a serious look at pushing back the rollout of the new car to 2022. NASCAR officially confirmed these reports on April 2, 2020, and the car's debut was pushed back a year to allow for enough testing time after the postponement of all events through May.

On August 17, NASCAR announced that testing of the Next Gen would resume at Dover International Speedway with Cole Custer on August 18–19, while another prototype, built by Action Express Racing, was tested at the Daytona road course with Felipe Nasr driving the day after the Daytona road course events.