The Camaro makes its NASCAR big league debut in the front row of the sport’s biggest race.
The 2018 Monster Energy Cup Series will mark the first time that a Chevrolet Camaro has competed in NASCAR’s premier league. The first race featuring the Camaro ZL1-themed stock car will be the 2018 Daytona 500 and in the Great American Race, newcomer Alex Bowman will start from the pole position in the car formerly driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The Camaro comes to NASCAR
While the Chevrolet Camaro has spent the past few seasons battling the Ford Mustang in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, the legendary muscle car has never been the chosen model for drivers in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series – formerly the Winston Cup. For the past few seasons, those drivers campaigning a Chevrolet race car in NASCAR’s big league competed in the Chevy SS-themed car, but that had to change for 2018.
NASCAR has always required all of the cars to be modeled after current production cars, and with the end of Holden Commodore production in Australia, the closely-related Chevrolet SS sport sedan has also been discontinued. Since the SS is no longer offered in the US, Chevrolet could not continue using the SS-themed stock car body, forcing the automaker to come up with a new body for the 2018 racing season.
After the success of the Camaro in the Xfinity Series, Chevrolet opted to finally introduce the Camaro to the premier NASCAR racing series.
Alex Bowman and the #88 Camaro ZL1
There will be a big group of drivers participating in the 2018 Daytona 500 in the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. This past weekend, they all took to the high-banks for their first official competitive seat time in the new car in single-car qualifying and when every driver had taken their turn, newcomer Alex Bowman had turned in the best lap. Bowman made it around the track in just 46.002 seconds, leading to an average speed of 195.644 miles per hour, narrowly beating the Toyota Camry driven by Denny Hamlin, who turned in a lap of 46.132 seconds (195.092 miles per hour).
Keep reading about the Chevy SS in NASCAR on the next page.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
