CONCORD, N.C. – Brad Keselowski’s main goal for this week’s NASCAR Next Gen test at Charlotte Motor Speedway is simple.
“First thing, don’t wreck the car, because it’s probably my Daytona 500 car,” Keselowski told SPEED SPORT on the eve of the test, which began Wednesday and concludes Friday.
Keselowski, who is a little more than a month into his tenure as co-owner and driver at RFK Racing, said the organization had an “oh, shit’ moment” within the last week.
Officials for the two-car team, formerly known as Roush Fenway Racing, came to the conclusion “there will not be enough race cars to start the season.”
Instead of the maximum of seven cars allowed per individual team, Keselowski estimates they will only have five cars by the start of the season. That includes the one complete car Keselowski will drive during this week’s test, plus two more cars per team.
“That will have to carry us for the first five weeks of the season,” Keselowski said.
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Beginning with the Clash at the Coliseum on Feb. 6, that would go through NASCAR’s West Coast swing that ends at Phoenix Raceway on March 13.
“I’m not super surprised by that,” Keselowski said. “I guess maybe … (he hoped) that NASCAR would find a way to not allow that to happen. Although I could kind of see it coming.”
The main culprit in the lack of chassis and chassis components is the ongoing international supply-chain issue that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
When does Keselowski anticipate RFK Racing being able to enjoy a full complement of cars?
Potentially September.
“Realistically, if we look at scrap percentages and accumulated them, somewhere in the playoffs,” Keselowski said. “No matter who you are, you’re probably going to wreck two or three race cars a year. … At least one of them is totaled, which is a pretty safe bet, given that we have four (super)speedway races. So assuming at least one of them is totaled and the other two are significantly damaged, it’s fair to say that the beginning of playoffs we’ll have a full roster.”
For context- This is the largest concern of #Nextgen to date and will correct itself appropriately over time.
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) December 17, 2021
The positive is that the cars are so far proving to be a significant improvement in terms of how they require talent to drive & cost to operate- compared to years past. https://t.co/SXAKiFhUIS
Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI Racing, voiced a concern over low car counts during NASCAR’s Champions Week in Nashville, Tenn., earlier this month.
“We certainly are concerned with supply issues at this point,” Hamlin said. “And what I’m terrified of is that if we have another semi (COVID) lockdown, and those suppliers can’t get supplies that they need to supply to us. We’re on a tight, tight schedule right now. The panic meter, it’s moving.”
Hamlin said he didn’t anticipate teams “putting their cars on track very much” during Speedweeks at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
“You just don’t have stuff sitting there ready to go in case you wreck,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin compared it to how Joe Gibbs Racing approached Speedweeks at the end of the Gen 6 era.
“Even with our old Gen 6 cars, Joe did not want us running practices, because he’s just like, ‘we can’t tear up eight cars, you know, we only got X amount left, we’re trying not to build more,” Hamlin said. “Certainly, Speedweeks could look differently for that. But you know, hopefully, we go out there and put on the best show possible.”
While Hamlin’s panic meter was moving, Keselowski is trying to take the first hurdle of his Cup ownership in stride.
“Just kind of the reality of living in 2021, nothing comes easily,” Keselowski said. “It’s a reality that nobody likes, but what are you going to do, scream about it? Just try to make the most of it. It’ll be the same for everyone.”
NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that NASCAR has heard the concerns about car inventory, but doesn’t believe it’ll be a major issue leading into the early part of the season.
“I’ve definitely heard through the media with people talking about that,” O’Donnell said. “Certainly we’ve had conversations with all of our vendors to ensure that we’re going to be in a good place to start the season and we feel very comfortable about the numbers that we’ll have.
“I’ve seen rumors out there that teams will only have one car, two cars. That’s not the case. We expect to be at a minimum of five per car number with front and rear clips, potentially two or more for each, up to potentially seven but I’d say probably five.”
O’Donnell added that with the Next Gen car, teams are not expected to have nearly as many cars in their inventory when compared to the most recent generation of race cars.
“I think what’s important to keep in mind is this is a totally different model,” O’Donnell explained. “Teams are used to having as many cars as they want or need. We believe that’ll be a sufficient inventory to get us through that first quarter of the season (approximately nine races) and we’ll continue to build and learn. We’ve said all along that we don’t expect teams to have as many cars in their inventory going forward. That was part of this model.”