Camaro ZL1 1LE Ready to Dominate NASCAR in 2020
Cream-of-the-crop Camaro will debut Feb. 8 during Daytona Speedweeks in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Chevrolet and NASCAR have been a match made on the high banks of Daytona for decades. When anyone thinks of stock car racing, the first name to come to mind is Dale Earnhardt Sr., who took his Wrangler- and BF Goodrich-liveried Monte Carlos and Luminas to the victory circle many, many times. The Bow Tie tradition continued on through Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson, all of whom carried the banner through the Impala, the SS, and as of late, the Camaro ZL1.
Halloween marked a new flag carrier ready to take Chevrolet into the 2020s, and from the current Gen-6 car to the Gen-7, set to arrive for the 2021 season: the Camaro ZL1 1LE.
“The ZL1 1LE is the highest performer within the Camaro production-car lineup,” said Chevrolet Performance and Motorsports U.S. chief Jim Campbell in a recent press statement. “We took lessons from the production car and applied them to the new 2020 Cup car.”
The ZL1 1LE will make its debut during Daytona Speedweeks, which includes the Daytona 500, at Daytona Beach, Florida February 8 through 16, where it will go up against the Ford Mustang GT and Toyota Camry TRD in the top-tier Monster Energy Cup Series.
The outgoing ZL1 has so far snagged seven wins in the 2019 season, with five of its drivers, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, William Byron, forging their way into the playoffs; of those names, only Larson and Elliott have taken their Camaros into the Round of 8 at Texas Motor Speedway as of this writing.
The new ZL1 1LE will join the Camaro SS in NASCAR, the latter competing in the second-tier Xfinity Series, where it picked up 76 wins, four driver’s championships, and four manufacturer’s championships since arriving back in 2013, at the start of Gen-6 era.
The new Camaro will add to the legacy Chevrolet has built in NASCAR over the decades, which include a record-setting 39 manufacturer’s championships, 13 consecutive championships between 2005 and 2013, and a record 31 driver’s championships, the most recent being 2016, when Johnson took home the big prize for the seventh time for Rick Hendrick Motorsports.
Photos: Chevrolet
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