Earlier this year, NASCAR dropped a massive bombshell. The stock car series linked up with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports for an ambitious project. Codenamed Garage 56, they would field a Next Gen car in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Admittedly, no drivers have been confirmed yet, but it seems that Jeff Gordon is a strong favorite.

Considering that he recently came out of retirement, the speculation grew even more. Earlier, former DTM and part-time NASCAR driver Mike Rockenfeller tested the car. The venue for the test was the Virginia International Raceway, which is a road course, which was the perfect venue.

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How did NASCAR fans react to news of the test?

Naturally, many people were absolutely thrilled to see the car in the flesh and in action. A fair number of fans admitted that the few shots that they have witnessed, have piqued their interest. Some people even observed that the car even had a NASCAR-style spoiler. Others were simply glad to see the ambitious project take off at last. Few fans even noted and appreciated that there was no major deviation from NASCAR configuration.

On the other end of the spectrum, there were Twitter users who remembered who was helming the project. To be precise, since this is a Chevrolet gig, Hendrick Motorsports is heavily involved. They noted that it was hugely convenient that one of the top NASCAR teams is possibly getting an advantage. The main grouse is that Hendrick Motorsports was getting a head-start in road course testing.

Many stated that this was a conflict of interest, especially with one party in the project. If there were engineers from Ford and Toyota, participating, it could have evened things out. People even began suggesting that Toyota and Ford should do more to get involved in the ambitious Le Mans project. Even the likes of Denny Hamlin spoke out against the lack of transparency on the matter.

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