NASCAR K&N Pro Series cars will have a new look for the 2015 racing season. On Tuesday afternoon at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, NASCAR President Mike Helton announced that NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and NASCAR K&N Pro Series West teams will be using a new, composite body manufactured by Five Star Race Car Bodies moving forward.
According to Helton, the change in body styles is a move that was made in an attempt to reduce costs and allow teams to more easily install and replace body panels at the race shop or the race track.
“We’re very proud of our K&N Series and the platform it gives for drivers to get into NASCAR style and learn the ropes, so to speak,” Helton said while unveiling the new body. “We’ve developed a body that is economical, strong, durable and easy to fix, if there’s such a thing as being able to easily fix a race car. The body is one that we could manage regulatory wise and one that teams could mange efficiently on the economy side. Five Star Race Car Bodies and our engineers at NASCAR, Cheverolet, Ford and Toyota all helped over a long period of time to put this car together. We’re very excited about it.”
In addition to the announcement by NASCAR, ARCA Racing Series officials also announced that their teams will have the option of running the new composite Five Star Race Car Bodies at tracks one mile and less in length during the 2015 season. ARCA President Ron Drager believes that giving teams the chance to use the new body will help to further the series’ cost-containment initiative, which also includes the introduction of the new Illmor 396 engine in 2015.
“Today’s announcement marks the first major enhancement to the outward appearance of the ARCA Racing Series race car in several years,” said Drager. “As we continue to pursue cost-containment initiatives for our participants, we are pleased to bring this project to reality in 2015, alongside the ARCA Illmor 396 engine. We’re proud to have been a part of this project with Five Star, and especially NASCAR, with whom we’ve had a constructive working relationship with for over 60 years.”
According to Five Star Race Car Bodies President and CEO, Carl Schultz, the new body is the most technically advanced body ever made for a stock car. The state-of-the-art laminate blend offers teams a strong, lightweight body that is able to withstand impact under normal racing conditions.
“We are proud of our involvement in the introduction of the new NASCAR K&N Pro Series and ARCA Racing Series composite body,” said Schultz. “This body is at the forefront of modern advance composites, utilizing technological advances in material laminates and manufacturing processes. It has met all performance and quality benchmarks set up on the start of the project. Race teams will benefit tremendously with this affordable, lightweight and durable body. All of this would not be possible without the great teamwork and cooperation of every person involved at both ARCA and NASCAR.
2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion Ben Rhodes was one of three current or former K&N Pro Series drivers joining Helton to make the announcement.
“This new body is great,” Rhodes said after the unveiling. “This is going to really reduce the costs for the low budget teams and also high budget teams. It is going to allow everybody to take that savings and invest it into the performance. That is going to allow people to run better on the track, level out the playing field, and make it better racing.”
2012 champion Kyle Larson and team owner Ben Kennedy were also in attendance on Tuesday.
