The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season will feature a 4-inch rear spoiler and 670 horsepower at a majority of tracks, NASCAR announced Dec. 21.
The news comes after NASCAR concluded a test of its Next Gen Cup car last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“It’s been a two-year process,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR evp and chief racing development officer, said. “So certainly, it came down to Friday, but that was really through all the work, the thousands of hours of on-track testing and the collaboration with the industry and continued tests to really narrow down what could be the final rules package for the Next Gen car. Friday (Dec. 17), we were able to solidify that.
“We met with the industry, a number of drivers post-test on Friday with the packages we had narrowed down and really hit on what we all thought would be a great Next Gen car in terms of going out under one rules package with 670 horsepower and then a low-downforce 4-inch spoiler, which we we believe we can implement across all of our tracks outside of superspeedways.
“So the bottom line of all this, and you’ll hear this from the drivers is that this package with the Next Gen car puts it back in the drivers’ hands and we’re excited about what that will do in 2022, for sure.”
The announced package will be utilized at all tracks except superspeedways (Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway). Setups for those tracks will be revealed at a later date.
Kevin Rutherford is the executive editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2025 after being the managing editor since 2015, and serving on the editing staff since 2013.
At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.