It has been over 12 years since a fourth OEM was in the sport. After 2012, NASCAR lost Dodge and has worked with Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford until today. However, expectations racked up recently with the NASCAR President dropping serious hints. A Japanese manufacturer seems to be waiting around the corner as well. However, things have again hit a roadblock.

Is NASCAR stuck in reverse gear?

The type of stock cars that the sport makes is unique. The current Cup Series car is the seventh-generation race car. This Next-Gen car has a five-speed transaxle instead of a traditional four-speed transmission. It produces 670 horsepower for most of the racetracks courtesy of a fuel-injected V8 engine. This latter point is exactly what differs from other cars. That is why NASCAR President Steve Phelps is again hitting the reverse gear in the conversation about roping in a fourth manufacturer.

Journalist Adam Stern updates Steve Phelps’ doubts about the whole scenario on Twitter. “@StevePhelps says that not all carmakers using V8 engines in their road cars is one of the things that’s made it tough to finalize a fourth OEM.” Phelps also added the other issues – “The investment is significant…and it’s part of your ad budget.” Despite this apparent hiccup, Phelps still tried to offer an optimistic solution. “There are ways around that, and we have a lot of smart guys who can figure out that.”

Roping in a fourth OEM is crucial for the sport, as NASCAR needs to sustain itself. RFK Racing owner and driver Brad Keselowski summed up his worries in case another OEM does not come soon. “The OEM picture and landscape is a significant threat. NASCAR’s been operating with three OEMs now for probably a decade, decade and a half. I feel like the sport needs about four, maybe five OEMs to be kind of its max healthy position.” In 2001, NASCAR had four OEMs. Following 2003, however, Pontiac departed the sport and was replaced in 2007 by Toyota. Since Dodge left after landing Keselowski the 2012 championship, NASCAR has been stuck with only three OEMs.

Now Steve Phelps is again casting a discouraging scenario, and that is not pleasing for fans. Some of them jumped to the comments to express their sentiments.

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Fans fire shots at the dragged out situation

When the sport first debuted in 1949, NASCAR thrived on nine competing OEMs that were willing to learn things from scratch. Making stock cars is not supposed to be the same as making regular cars. When Toyota first entered NASCAR in 2007, it went through a period of acclimatization with the sport. So a fan emphasized: “Why are we making this V8 platform a talking point? It’s not like they are pluking engines off the assembly line and placing them in the race cars. All OEs start from scratch on each generation engine.”

The horsepower debate also entered the controversy. Back in 2014, cars could put out around 900 hp. That scaled down to 750 in 2015, 550 in 2019, and then back up to 670 in 2022. Despite the recent bump, one fan asserted that it is still low, and Phelps does not recognize that. “They haven’t been smart enough to realize that Cup cars have been low on horsepower since 2018, so I doubt it.” High horsepower was the cornerstone of NASCAR in its golden age. Veterans like Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon were known for their high-speed ventures. So one fan made it clear that the new OEM should offer high hp, if not the same engine. “I have come to the compromise that I can accept a different type of engine if we still see 850+ hp. An engine change and less than 700? Nah.”

Fans have taken NASCAR to task for their executive decisions a lot lately. Issues like inconsistency in the DVP rule or the consequence of the elimination playoffs that handed Joey Logano a shock championship are all alive in people’s minds. So somebody else dropped a sly jab at NASCAR’s upper echelons in this regard. “Did Steve just call himself smart? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”

A fan was ready for some kind of compromise for the sport. In recent times, NASCAR has tried to become relevant in the electric sphere via hybrid vehicles. The ABB NASCAR EV Prototype was rolled out in Chicago last year in July. So somebody wrote with caution: “Maybe a different style of v8 and not just push rod can be allowed plus some form of hybridization, tho that may bring a whole new can of worms to this.”

Evidently, Steve Phelps’ shifty attitude is not drumming up sympathy among fans. A fourth OEM is the need of the hour – but provided it satisfies NASCAR’s core conditions.