NASCAR Le Mans entry won’t be anything like a NASCAR Cup car

Did you think Hendrick Motorsports was taking a NASCAR Cup car to Le Mans in 2023?

Well…..think again.

The program will be overseen by Hendrick vice president of competition Chad Knaus, including formal approval by the ACO (the race’s organizers) and finalization of the car’s specs. It’s expected the car would have a hybrid engine, and it would need other major adjustments (working lights, durable brakes, etc.).

“There’s a lot involved,” Jeff Gordon said Thursday morning during an interview with “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM’s NASCAR channel.

“You’ve got Dallara in Italy, one of the primary partners, that’s going to build a one-off chassis that, underneath the skin, is going to be quite a bit different to be able to run 24 hours — the power plant, the fuel cell, the tires. There’s a lot of things that are in the plans and a lot of work to be done between the folks at Dallara, Chevrolet, Hendrick and NASCAR.

“It’s going to be a fun project but also a very challenging one. In a short period of time, you think next June is plenty of time to prepare, but it’s not an easy task. We’re so far in the early stages that it’s hard to really get you any really solid answers on how everything is coming together right now.”

There have been few hints about the driver lineup since the announcement last month with names dropped such as Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Ricky Taylor and even Jeff Gordon himself.

Team owner Rick Hendrick joked during the news conference announcing the Le Mans project that “we’re going to put [Jeff] Gordon on a diet, and then we’ll get Jimmie  [Johnson] back.”