NASCAR Unveils Its Garage 56 Entry For 24 Hours Of Le Mans

It’s no longer under wraps. Friday at Daytona International Speedway NASCAR officially unveiled the Garage 56 entry it will take to France and field in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Garage 56 project, which is anticipated to be approved for entry by l’Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) in the coming weeks, is a partnership between NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and GoodyearGT
and will enter the car in a class the race’s organizer allows as an extra entry that tests new technologies and does not compete for any class or overall wins.

Garage 56 was introduced in 2012 as a special single-entry class reserved for cars to test new technologies. It’s an extra spot on the grid and the cars aren’t required to meet the same technical regulations that the rest of the field must, only safety regulations.

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The car is a Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 similar to what is raced in the NASCAR Cup series. The only changes are those needed for endurance racing: functioning headlights and taillights, a larger fuel cell, carbon brake discs and specially designed Goodyear Eagle race tires.

Until Friday the only glimpses see of the car have been during one of its testing sessions that began last August at Road Atlanta. So far, the car has logged more than 3,600 miles at six separate tests (Road Atlanta, Virginia International Raceway, Goodyear Proving Grounds, Carolina Motorsports Park, Sebring International Raceway and Daytona International Speedway).

After some pushback from other Cup teams, who are banned from testing, the data from the Garage 56 entry tests has been shared with other teams to deny Hendrick any sort of advantage for its cars that compete in NASCAR’s Cup series.

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The car will have a three-driver team of two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button.

The entry actually marks a return to Le Mans for NASCAR. The sport’s founder Bill France entered stock cars at Le Mans in 1976 after reaching a deal with the event’s organizers. Two NASCAR race cars, a Dodge Charger owned and driven by Hershel McGriff, and a Junie Donlavey owned Ford Torino driven by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson, competed in a Grand International class which NASCAR and the ACO had negotiated. The race got underway on June 12, 1976, but sadly NASCAR’s time at Le Mans ended early as both cars never finished; the Dodge lost an engine on the second lap, and the Torino’s transmission broke in the 11th hour.

“From the beginning of this project, it was important to us that the car we bring to Le Mans is a true NASCAR stock car,” said Jim France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO. “While there have been some adjustments to allow the car to compete in a 24-hour endurance race, fans in Le Mans will be treated to the full NASCAR experience.”

The 200^th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be held on June 11-12.