With two dozen of the sport's top teams based in the Charlotte area, NASCAR has moved south this week with a two-day test session wrapping up Wednesday in Daytona, Florida.
Just over three weeks remain before the 2022 NASCAR season starts on Feb. 6 with an exhibition race at the Los Angeles Coliseum, where the football field has been temporarily paved over.
Teams are scrambling to get prepared as NASCAR switches over to its so-called NextGen race car this year and the all-teams test at Daytona International Speedway is a final tune-up for the new season.
The new car features a shift from vehicles manufactured almost entirely by the teams, to a model that relies primarily on parts bought from approved suppliers to control costs. NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Innovation John Probst, who is based at the Concord Research and Development Center, says, so far, getting those parts to teams has gone as well.
“You know, we’re not immune to the world. We’re seeing COVID and supply chains being delayed and some of the distribution being delayed a little bit,” Probst said. “I’d say that, right now, we don’t see any parts or pieces that are going to keep any car from racing in an event."
Probst also said NASCAR will continue to work with teams to make sure they have what they need.
"I think that while we’re concerned, and I think that everyone’s concerned and probably rightly so, that’s what we do — we worry about things like that — we don’t see anything right now that’s going to keep anybody from racing,” he said.
NASCAR is streaming its test session Wednesday on YouTube.
The regular season opens with the Daytona 500 on Feb 20..