GENERAL Motors has publicly declared its desire to bring one of its NASCAR stars out to Adelaide for a wildcard appearance in the 2026 Supercars season finale.
The annual Adelaide fixture has become a popular target for American aces to consider, given its position on the calendar falls after the NASCAR and IndyCar campaigns have concluded.
After multiple false starts, the first such crossover occurred last year when Austin Cindric committed to representing Tickford Racing on the streets of the South Australian capital.
Cindric impressed many with his professionalism and approach, but the unique nature of Supercars machinery made for four days of running towards the rear of the field.
V8 Sleuth understands Ford is unlikely to arrange for a repeat of that program for 2026.
Chevrolet, however, is very much interested in stepping up to the plate.
“Absolutely,” GM Motorsports Supercars racing program manager Simon McNamara told V8 Sleuth.
“I can tell you we’re very interested in bringing one of our NASCAR boys out for a wildcard.”
That could feasibly come in the Camaro which GM’s homologation squad Team 18 is running in the Ipswich Super440, The Bend 500 and Bathurst 1000.
McNamara stressed that their Adelaide wildcard intentions hinge on Supercars granting sufficient testing time.
“There’s cars within the fold and there’s enough people around and different staff that I could get to do something with it as a Team GM style of thing instead of one particular team, which is what we would ideally like to do,” said McNamara.
“But we would never do it unless it was done properly.
“We’ve spoken to Supercars: if that was something we were going to do, could we get some dispensation about allowing them some more time to run and get their head around the car?
“There’s a whole range of things to play out before we can make it happen, but in an ideal world, yes, we’d love to do it.”
Jesse Love aboard an Image Racing Commodore in the 2025 Adelaide Super2 round. Pic: Mark Walker
Asked what the appeal of the initiative would be, McNamara explained: “We as a global motorsport program are aligned on everything that we do.
“There’s synergies in some areas of what we do but there’s also opportunities in what we do, so that’s part of what our operations system is, is that we have opportunities globally for drivers and engineers to be cyclical in what we do.
“Maybe it’s an opportunity to bring a young driver and young engineer down here for a learning curve and we send some people back that way.
“There’s a whole raft of things that we’re developing through our global program and Supercars being part of it in a bigger sense now gives us access to those opportunities.”
Chevrolet young gun Jesse Love, who races for Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and occasionally at Cup level, last year drove an Image Racing Holden in the Adelaide Super2 decider.
The 2026 bp Adelaide Grand Final is scheduled for November 26-29.