With the Chevrolet Camaro no longer rolling off production lines, and the brand two years behind NASCAR competitors Toyota and Ford in its evolution of the NextGen body design, General Motors is close to revealing its long-awaited fresh offering for the Cup Series.<\/p>\n
The new design will have a lot to live up to, with Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Kyle Larson<\/a> having won Chevrolet\u2019s first Cup Series<\/a> championship in the NextGen car this season, narrowly pipping the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas of Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe<\/a> to the checkered flag.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, Chevrolet\u2019s 15 wins in 2025 were also the most of any OEM, ahead of Toyota with 14 and Ford with seven. This has been the case since the NextGens were introduced in 2022, with the manufacturer having won 67 races in the Cup Series, compared to Toyota\u2019s 41, and Ford\u2019s 35.<\/p>\n Despite this success, Ford still leads the way in championships with three, a lead that Chevrolet will surely be hoping its new design can work towards narrowing.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I think our guys, along with GM, have worked on this, and it\u2019s supposedly better than what we\u2019ve got,\u201d Rick Hendrick recently told Bob Pockrass<\/a>. \u201cSo, closer to what Toyota and Ford have. They had a shot at the apple, you know, taking our car and getting their car better.<\/p>\n Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo next year, we gotta learn the car, it won\u2019t be perfect right out of the gate. I\u2019m super excited about the power, more power, and I\u2019m excited about having a new car that we can work with that\u2019s got a little more downforce.\u201d<\/p>\n This work has been ongoing for some time now, with NASCAR\u2019s Senior Vice President of Competition, Elton Sawyer, having told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio in September, via Daily Downforce<\/a>, \u201cWe started working back with the folks there at GM probably over a year or so ago now\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThen they started submitting the body parts, and then they go to a wind tunnel test where all the OEMs, our original equipment manufacturers, are there and watch how that test unfolds at the wind tunnel. So all the boxes have been checked, and looking forward to seeing the new Chevrolet when we get to Daytona in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n DON’T MISS<\/p>\n As eluded to by Hendrick, not only will his team have new bodies to work with next season, but there will also be more power on tap for 17 tracks<\/a> – specifically those under 1.5 miles in length, along with all road courses. This follows an announcement by NASCAR President Steve O\u2019Donnell that horsepower will be increased<\/a> at those tracks in 2026 from 680 to 750 in an attempt to improve the racing.<\/p>\n