As a roadgoing vehicle, the Chevy Camaro is officially dead. The final example of the muscle car rolled off the assembly line at GM Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan on December 14th, 2023, but there’s still some life left in the nameplate, at least as far as motorsports goes. NASCAR Chevy teams will continue to field “zombie” Camaro race cars, which, as it turns out, might not be called Camaros at all.
Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) has released two paint schemes for the No. 24 NASCAR Chevy of William Byron for 2025, and they reveal an interesting detail: the “Camaro” script has been deleted from the rear fascia. Instead, the race car simply reads “Chevrolet” out back, taking the place of the Camaro nameplate.
Rendering of William Byron’s No. 24 Camaro with “Chevrolet” script for 2025
Rendering of Shane van Gisbergen’s No. 91 Camaro with “Camaro” script for 2023
Interestingly, the renderings still show a “ZL1” badge on both the front grille and rear fascia, although it’s not clear if this is simply an oversight by the paint scheme’s artist, or if it will make it to the real-life model come Daytona. It’s also not clear if the same will be true for the Xfinity Series or if teams will continue with Camaro SS-based race cars.
Even though the Camaro is no longer in production, its continued use as a race car in NASCAR remains entirely legal under the current regulations. The Camaro replaced the Chevy SS as The Bow Tie Brand’s Cup Series entry in 2018 when it was still being produced as a consumer model. As long as a vehicle is in production as a street car when a manufacturer applies for competition, it remains eligible to race.
However, it might not make much sense for the NASCAR Chevy entry to be the Camaro for too much longer. As GM Authority previously explored, there aren’t many options out there to succeed the Camaro in NASCAR, especially now that the Chevy Malibu is on the chopping block. The next NASCAR Chevy race car might very well be a crossover, and an electric one at that, potentially signaling that the Chevy Blazer EV could make an appearance in North American stock car racing.
No reason to get worked up about it now, though. At the time of this writing, the sanctioning body has not revealed a timetable for full electrification – or if that’s even still considered a viable option.
Comments
The evolution of the cars in NASCAR interests me more than the racing on the track these days… ‘Very interesting predicament for Chevy- They’re not going to run a Blazer while Toyota and Ford are still fielding traditional “cars” (not CUV’s)- NASCAR wouldn’t allow the stark differences in aerodynamics. Some have suggested that GM will retire the Chevrolet name from NASCAR and begin using Cadillac sedans in the race series. The chances of Cup racing going full-on electric anytime soon is extremely low, although they apparently want to sneak in some hybrid technology. Could a hybrid Camaro be reintroduced before the ’26 season? Who knows, but it should be interesting…
Cadillac will never happen. Wrong demographic. GM will probably run an unbranded Chevy until the crossover body style is implemented.
I think in the past you could run a body style up to three years? Then the retired cars went to ARCA.
From my understanding the Camaro can be run indefinitely. However, it may stop receiving manufacturer support after some time, like the zombie Dodges in the Xfinity Series.
So stupid of GM to abandon one of THEIR most successful race cars…….What part of their body is used for this decision???????
I own 14 Camaros and it doesn’t matter if they race in Nascar or not but if NASCAR thinks of going electric watching almost every Saturday or Sunday since 1979 will be the end for me if they ever go electric I would instantly stop watching NASCAR no electric cars are race cars they don’t sound like a race car and never will the whole thing about race cars started with exhaust side pipes sticking out of the hood and turbos sounds of wastegates blowing off and not to mention the newest hottest realm of power every car sold with a supercharger the whining sound so even on the street I would never own an electric car and for racing will never watch one like what is never seen one electric race on Indy e or if there is a such thing as F1e won’t even get into it