NASCAR Rookie Cole Custer Reveals His First Impression After Testing Next Gen Model at Dover

NASCAR rookie Cole Custer completed his first test and the fifth overall in NASCAR‘s Next Gen model for the Cup Series in 2022.

Custer gave an idea of his first impressions after driving the new-age car at the Dover International Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The Stewart-Haas Racing also said that his first thought is how exhausted he felt.

He drove more than 1,000 miles over four days at Dover, which includes the races over the weekend. Of the five races, this was the second for the third test car called the ‘P3’ prototype.

The P3 was built by Richard Childress Racing in collaboration with NASCAR’s Research & Development team.

How will the new car fare in traffic?

“Now I feel like we have all the bugs worked out and you can go run competitive lap times. And now we’re just trying to figure out what makes it generally setup-wise what’s gonna make it go faster. What’s gonna make it gain lap time and what’s gonna be best for the long run,” Cole Custer said.

“Right now we’re just trying to knock out big picture things setup-wise. But, overall, I feel like it’s too early to tell how it’s gonna work in traffic. We’re too early in the going I feel like right now, so that’s gonna come a little bit later on. There’s nothing that jumps out at me that’s totally bad or totally good, either,” Custer added.

When asked if the speeds during the test were comparable to what was seen during the Cup Series races over the weekend, Custer said that he believes the new car is close. His best lap time around the 1-mile track was at 23.8 seconds.

The biggest change in Next Gen model as per Cole Custer

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Steering was the biggest difference between the current car and the Next Gen car Custer drove. The driver said that the new car’s steering wheel felt lighter than the current steering set-up.

Custer is of the opinion that the initial phases of development are all done. He believes that the new model is ready to be tested for effectiveness in the long-run. However, he still cannot say how it will perform in traffic with cars trying to pass each other.