Austin Dillon has gotten to spend plenty of quality time with NASCAR's Next Gen car, and it looks like the driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing likes what the future has in store.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Dillon tested the new car at Richmond Raceway, and in an Instagram video posted after the first test drive, he had nothing but good things to say about the Gen-7 race car.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Xpc9cF4jb/
"This is not the locked-in body style," says Dillon, who heads to Talladega this week for the playoff race. "All the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are working on their separate body style. This is what we're testing. And the test is going well so far. We think there are some really cool things to come from this car in '21. Can't wait to get work on it. We've had fun. I really like working on it. It's a lot fun to drive."
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The Cup car is expected to debut in 2021, and NASCAR President Steve Phelps has been leading the charge as far as drumming up hype is concerned.
"We are very excited with where things are with this Next Gen car," Phelps said Monday on the NBC Sports show NASCAR America. "We are on time for a 2021 rollout. I think it's going to be exciting to get it on track.
"We were in the wind tunnel last week, so having a test at Richmond (Tuesday) and Wednesday, kind of the culmination of a lot of work that has been done by the race teams, by our (manufacturer) partners and by the folks of NASCAR to put this on the race track. This particular car was built by Richard Childress and his folks and it won't have the design of the Chevy, Ford and Toyota, but it will be kind of an opportunity for us to shake down the car and we're really excited to get it on the race track."
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