Just days before the Daytona 500, NASCAR dropped a mysterious teaser that has fans buzzing—not with excitement, but with a familiar dread of an electric takeover.

“Something cool is coming. 👀,” NASCAR wrote as the caption for a new video released on X.

The 15-minute video showed a car covered in black, with lights in its garage flickering into life. While the main vehicle is obstructed from view, the highlight of the video is when you switch up the volume. The roar of its engine is enough to enthrall any motorsports fan. The pre-Daytona 500 teaser has fueled speculation, with many fans on Reddit believing it showcases a new EV prototype.

The ABB NASCAR EV Prototype was first unveiled during the 2024 Chicago Street Race. It was created in collaboration with Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota by the same NASCAR engineers behind the Next Gen car. With four specially designed Goodyear tires and a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery with a powertrain that can produce 1,000 kilowatts, the car looked like a futuristic spectacle. But fans were notably not impressed.

The high-pitched screeching sound that the electric vehicle produced did not impress fans. It starkly contrasted NASCAR’s internal combustion engine’s typical rumbling sound, so the EV did not exactly match the nostalgic factor of the sport. Also, it was still a work in progress with no clear indication of racing on NASCAR’s racetracks with the same speed and power as the current car.

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ABB showed off its prototype again at the FIA Formula E Championship’s Miami E-Prix at Homestead Miami Speedway in May 2025. And Cup Series driver David Ragan, who turned laps in the car, said it felt similar to the Next-Gen car.

“I think that they wouldn’t be spending the money and the time just for fun,” Ragan said last year. “It’s only a matter of time before you see that on the track. So they haven’t publicly said, and I don’t know if there even is a timeline, but it is happening all over the world. So it’ll eventually happen here in North America.”

While these words signal a new era for NASCAR ahead of the Daytona 500, fans treat this possibility with caution.

A wave of curiosity captures fans

As the 2026 season is just a few days away, the thrill is high-pitched in the NASCAR community. So the sport’s teaser announcement left people hungry for an explanation. Fans started racking their brains—and the possibility of an EV did not escape them. “Looks tall like the test EV they’ve been using for a few years now. EV series incoming?”

However, another fan noticed the difference in sound, a primary reason for people’s disappointment in the 2024 EV rollout. “EV is what I was thinking, but the sound doesn’t sound like the EV car at all.” Somebody else also noted down a point of difference—the rear wings, which resembled NASCAR’s infamous Car of Tomorrow. “Doesn’t look like it has that big wing on the back,” they wrote.

The introduction of an EV means that NASCAR is looking to go global. With Formula One adopting a 50/50 split between two power sources for sustainability this season, NASCAR is looking to catch up. So a fan suggested a possible OEM may be looking for a deal: “Another EV prototype? Honda Ridgeline to Trucks in ’27.”

Others brought out different possibilities, ranging from Legacy Motor Club’s guest driver to a trailer for Kyle Busch‘s season. Somebody suggested that NASCAR is simply creating unnecessary hype for an old piece of news: “Don’t be surprised if they just reveal a 750 HP car, just milking the hype.”

Clearly, enthusiasm is spilling over from the fanbase. We can only wait and see what NASCAR has to roll out.