Roger Penske Has Surprising Vision of NASCAR Future

• NASCAR team owner Roger Penske says, “I think hybrid is more of a bridging strategy to the future.”

• NASCAR Cup Series driver and team co-owner Denny Hamlin believes developing sustainability in the sport is a balancing act.

• The NTT IndyCar Series, which is owned by Penske, recently announced its new 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 engine with hybrid technology will race in the second half of 2024.

Don’t expect to see an electric vehicle in the near future in NASCAR’s Cup Series, but a hybrid is a possibility, says championship team owner Roger Penske.

“I think the hybrid formula seems to be something that will make a lot of sense as we go forward because we’ve been seeing electrification kind of slow down here lately,” says Penske, whose Penske Automotive operates dealerships worldwide. “I think hybrid is more of a bridging strategy to the future.”

The NTT IndyCar Series, which is owned by Penske, recently announced its new 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 engine with hybrid technology would make its debut in the 2024 season’s second half.

“All the trucks and trailers that go to IndyCar races are using renewable diesel (fuel),” Penske says. “We put that in this past year.”

Penske admits he doesn’t have a “playbook for NASCAR”, but he notes a hybrid car can have “some electrical components of the drive train, along with a nice engine.”

“I think that’s what we’re going to see,” Penske says. “I don’t see it overnight, but you maybe could have a sedan series where they could run without fully electric vehicles.

“Engine manufacturers or the OEMs are now dealing with our own strategies of trying to develop this EV marketplace, which is slower than expected. We have an issue of the reliability of the charging network, the infrastructure is not there, range anxieties. Remember with Formula E they had to come in and get in another car. If we had to bring two cars to a NASCAR race, I’m not sure that’s what we want to do right now if we’re trying to look at costs, but I think it’s in the future. I think the hybrid version could be very good.”

Penske points to Toyota as the leader in hydrogen cars. He noted a French team had a hydrogen car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell said in November that he planned to travel to Japan during the off-season to look at hydrogen racing.

“I think that’s an opportunity. We’ve looked at it in our truck fleet,” says Penske, who owns Penske Truck Rental. “We’ve run some just as test units, but it’s going to be a long time before we see that in competition. I think you’re gonna have some modified different engines and you’ll have some hybrids that will lean towards sustainability.”

NASCAR Cup Series driver and team co-owner Denny Hamlin believes developing sustainability in the sport is a balancing act.

“You’ve got our avid NASCAR fans that want one thing, you’ve got new fans that would like to see other things, you’ve got OEMs, that frankly, aren’t even aligned on what they believe the future is, whether it’s all lithium battery or is it some sort of mixture with hydrogen,” Hamlin says. “I think it’s going to take a while for this to play out, and it’s going to take years to play out to figure out where transportation in general in the U.S. goes and throughout the world.”

Hamlin believes motorsports should be a technology leader, but “if the OEMs don’t deem this a valuable platform for them, they’re not going to be here, then nothing happens and none of this would be possible.”

“NASCAR at times needs to put their foot down and say this is what we need to do for competition sake, but the OEMs have got to continue to have a voice because they are the ones who keep this thing afloat from a return perspective of selling street cars,” Hamlin says.