The most controversial generation

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history of NASCAR

NASCAR started in 1949 as a coalition of all the major stock car racing series, headed by "Big" Bill France. The early years were dominated by the Strictly Stock division which were normal off the showroom floor cars that were raced, hence Stock Car. By the late 50s safety and cost savings was starting to become an issue as teams would need to by multiple cars each year and race and the cars were flimsy, so purpose built chassis' were introduced. Taken from the more popular Modified series which operated purpose-built chassis' earlier in the 50s, these would help to cut down costs as all that would be needed is to buy panels from the manufacturer instead of whole cars.

In 1969-70 the series progressed into what is known as the areo wars, with the famous Daytona and superbirds most popularly run by "the king" Richard Petty, which focused on making cars more aerodynamic to handle the massive tracks like Daytona and the brand new Talladega. The areo wars would be shelved until the early 80s where more boxy econo cars became the norm, and each manufacturer started to make their cars perform much better. Notable cars include the buicks run by Darrell Waltrip, the ford ran by Bill Elliott, and the Monte Carlos of Dale Earnhardt Sr.

The new areo wars defined the 1990s up until the introduction of the Gen 5 car in the mid 2000s. These new aero wars were marked with the innovations of wind tunnel testing and more freedom in the cars body shape. The gen 4 cars would be known as Twisted Sisters because of how misshapen the cars were. By the mid 2000s NASCAR wanted to crack down on the regulations to help bring down the costs as the top teams would be spending millions on wind tunnel testing which the smaller or newer teams could not. This led to the gen 5 car, a lower cost, safer, and more regulated car.

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history of the gen 5 car

The Gen 5 car, known as the Car of Tomorrow (COT), was first debuted in 2007 for 4 races of the season, and was met by mixed reviews from the drivers and fans alike. Compared to the previous gen 4 cars they had a shorted wheel base, were taller, and had a massive front splitter and rear wing which many considered horribly ugly. Many drivers complained about the handling of the new car, stating that the getting in the wake of a leading car would stall out any momentum making it very hard to pass. Another common complaint was the massive rear wing, and how, if turned around during a spin, it would pick the rear end of the car off the ground and flip it, with scary crashes including Carl Edward's, ryan newman and Brad Keslowski. By February of 2010 the rear wing would be replaced by a more traditional splitter, fixing their problem.

In 2011 the car would receive another face lift, this time the front bumper would be closed in with a much more traditional look which was then able to be designed to more easily match the real cars which the earlier cars were bound by a uniform bumper layout. By 2013 the next generation would be released and would be much more popular among fans than the COT car.

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history of Dale Earnhardt Jr

Son of one of the most famous Stock car drivers in nascar history, Dale Earnhardt Jr started his career first in the lower street stock division where he raced for 2 years and was able to move up to the Late Model stock division. By 1996-1997 Jr made starts in the Busch series (now Xfinity), where he made 9 starts in preparation for a ride at his father's Busch series team.

The Busch series is where he really shined, winning back to back championships in 1998-1999, barely beating out rival and friend Matt Kenseth. In 1999 he also made his first start in the Winston Cup Series for his father's Dale Earnhardt Incorperated (DEI) cup team in the now famous #8 Budweiser car.
In 2000 Dale Jr would burst into the cup series full time and win his first race at the DirecTV 500 at Texas Motor Speedway breaking his father's record for the quickest rookie to earn a win at just 12 starts. Dale ended the 2000 season with 2 wins, 3 top 5s, 5 top10s, and 2 poles.

In 2001 DEI would see the addition of Michael Waltrip to their line up and the trio of Dale Sr, Jr, and waltrip would set out to dominate the 2001 Daytona 500. By the end of the race Dale Sr would be killed blocking the rest of the field from the two leading DEI cars of Michael Waltrip and his son, where Michael Waltrip, a good friend of Dale Sr would win his first race in over 400 starts with his older brother and cup champion Darrell making the call in one of the most emotional races in nascar history. In a cruel fit of irony Dale Jr would crash on the first lap of the very next race with an eerily similar crash to his father's.
In one of the most emotional wins in NASCAR history, the fall Daytona race would be marked by utter dominance by Dale Jr who lead 115 out of the 160 laps and carved from 6th to first in just two laps with his teammate Michael Waltrip also doing the same, mirroring Dale Srs last Talladega win where he went from 12th to first in 10 laps. In a total reversal of the season opener, Dale Jr would be pushed to victory by Michael Waltrip, where they would both celebrate in the infield with their crews.

The next few years saw moderate success, with a few high placed points finishes, and multiple wins, including 4 straight Talladega wins and a win at the 2004 Daytona 500. In 2004 Jr would suffer a horrifying crash at a race in Sonoma driving a corvette c5r which would sever a fuel line and engulf the whole car in flames. He would end up with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his neck, chin, and legs and would not be able to finish the next two races, getting relieved by Martin Truex Jr and John Andretti.
In 2008 he would move from the now faltering DEI and go to Hendrick Motorsports, where he would stay until the end of his career. Now With the iconic 88 instead of the 8 which was still owned by DEI, he would immediately show his strength, winning the bud shootout, and the Daytona duels, but unfortunately couldn't get a win in the 500 finishing in 9th. The next few years he would be winless in the cup series until 2012 at Michigan. Most notably in this time at the 2010 fall Daytona Busch series race he would win in a throwback to his fathers #3 Wrangler car.

He would again be winless up until 2014 where he would have 4 wins on the season and finish 8th in points. The next few years he would have sparse wins. In 2016 he would suffer from a concussion, which has plagued him for much of his career, but this time he would have to sit out the rest of the season? Only 19 races in. Jeff Gordon and future replacement Alex Bowman would substitute for him the rest of the year. The following year he would announce his retirement from NASCAR.

During his career he would become a 15 straight Most Popular Driver Award, 2nd to Bill Elliott, 26 career cup wins, 260 top tens, 15 poles, 2 Daytona 500s, and would have 6 Talladega wins, 2nd to his father who had 10.
He still owns his own team Jr Motorsports, has a successful podcast company called Dirty Mo Media, has commentated for NBC from 2018-2023, and now commentates for Amazon and TNT for the 2025 season, and also is a executive working on the new NASCAR game which is set to release later this year.

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features

• Fully modeled body, with modeled headlight, and grill stickers, openable and realistic hood hinge mechanism, fully adjustable rear wing, rear fuel inlet with breather, and a accurate and partial 2010 AMP Energy livery (updated front end and spoiler version will get the National Guard livery)

• fully modeled Chassis with crash bars/bumpers, Chassis Hangers, and protective door foam

• fully modeled interior with accurate gauges, accurate seat, working steering with fully modeled linkage from steering wheel to wheels, accurate shifter, modeled MSD Ignition boxes, and dry sump oil tank behind driver seat

• fully modeled Engine bay with accurate Chevy R07 Racing engine complete with ignition system, intake system with carburetor, manifold, and intake, and with accurate waterpump and side mounted oil/fuel pump, and fully connected radiator with fans, and accurate louvers, and a full exhaust system complete with equal length Tri-y headers with an H pipe and single passenger side exit boom tube

• fully modeled suspension with Front independent with working mechanical steering, and rear trailing arm solid axle suspension with adjustable track bar

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controls

• Pitch and yaw: throttle and steering (no reverse again as idk how to code it)
• ag1: hood
• ag2 + VTOL up: driver side trackbar
• ag2 + Trim up: passenger side trackbar
• ag3 + Trim: Adjustable rear wing
• ENG FAN switch on dash: activate engine fans

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gallery

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Builders Note: This project has been on of my favorites to make so far and is by far my best and most detailed. For this build I really wanted to push myself in what I can create and try some new things, especially with new techniques with suspension making, and detail adding. The gauges alone are a good chunk of parts and were all completely done by had with individual labels for each number. I'll be honest I did loose interest near the end of the build so some things like the guages don't work 1. Because I didn't wanna make them work 2. Didn't know how to make them work. I also was debating making a fully working starting procedure too but I abandoned that as well. The handling model might also be a little bit off as I wasn't able to properly test it as it lagged my phone pretty good, but its as close as I could get. Below I'll put a little blip on how to set it up properly to get the most out of it. Overall im really happy with how it turned out and hope you enjoy driving it!

basic setup guide
Stock it doesn't turn the best left, so raising the passenger side track bar seems to be the best adjustment. Doing so helps stiffen the passenger rear spring and helps get it to turn. Putting a little rear wing also helps with cornering and planting the car much more, about half down is my preferred spot but having full wing works as well (VTOL up brings the wing down for more downforce)

Special thanks to Musraskrois for testing and feedback, and Linus for testing and feedback and for the transmission coding

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Keep looking to the stars