The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series (formerly known as Racecar Euro Series and Euro-Racecar NASCAR Touring Series) is an official NASCAR stock-car racing series based in Europe. It is one of NASCAR's four international-sanctioned series, alongside the NASCAR Pinty's Series, the NASCAR Mexico Series and the NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race, and is the only one based in Europe.
History
French rally driver Jérôme Galpin conceived the idea of a European-based stock car racing series after he watched a NASCAR race in 2002. His family group, Team FJ, then launched the Racecar Euro Series in June 2008, and announced that the first season would be held the following year as a FFSA-sanctioned series. The first season in 2009, was held on 7 tracks across France, with 16 cars entering the inaugural race at Nogaro. The series was approved as an International Series by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after the series held a race at the Nürburgring in 2010. The calendar was expanded further in 2011, to include more races in Europe.
Galpin began to make connections with NASCAR after he had contact with NASCAR's Senior Development Business Director, Robert Duvall, in June 2009. NASCAR soon took interest in the series, and later in 2010, the then-Racecar Euro Series champion Lucas Lasserre was invited to enter the Toyota All-Star Showdown.
In early 2012, Team FJ entered into an agreement with NASCAR to sanction the series as part of the NASCAR circuit until 2020, though it remains registered as an International FIA series. As part of the agreement, the series changed its name to the Euro-Racecar NASCAR Touring Series.
With the new agreement with NASCAR, the series became an official NASCAR racing series in Europe. NASCAR rules and standards were adopted in the series. The champion was invited to the NASCAR Night of Champions Gala at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, along with the rest of the regional series champions, with the 2012 champion Ander Vilariño being the first to attend.
On July 1, 2013, the series was renamed the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series after Whelen Engineering announced an agreement to become the title sponsor of the series through 2018. This agreement was extended on December 6, 2017, after NASCAR announced that Whelen Engineering would continue to be the title sponsor of both the Euro Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour until 2024.
On October 4, 2019, the series announced that NASCAR and Team FJ would continue to work together to operate the series until at least 2030. On October 22, 2019, the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series announced that the classes would be rebranded from Elite 1 and Elite 2 to EuroNASCAR PRO (ENPRO) and EuroNASCAR 2 (EN2) for the 2020 season.
Tracks
The following are the tracks which have been used since 2009, currently are in use, and/or are scheduled to be used in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series as sanctioned by NASCAR:
Notes
Cars
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is based around the concept of using NASCAR-style cars on European circuits. The Euro-NASCAR cars are inspired by American NASCAR cars but were built specifically for European tracks. The cars use a V8 engine creating . It uses a four-speed manual gearbox, is rear-wheel drive and weighs .
A new generation of car, dubbed as the "Next Level" package, was introduced in the 2016 season. The Next Level car saw the introduction of a new aerodynamic package and a redesigned composite body, and the cars adopted an 8-inch rear spoiler instead of the wing used in the previous generation of cars.
The first Next Level car to be introduced was the redesigned Chevrolet SS composite body, which was unveiled during the 2015 season-ending race at Circuit Zolder. Resembling the body of its American counterpart, the car made its racing debut in the 2015 Race of Champions. The Ford Mustang body also made its test debut soon after. Starting in 2018, the Chevrolet composite body was updated into a Camaro ZL1-based body style, although the SS body is still legal for competition until the end of the 2019 season. The SS nameplate was subsequently retired in 2020 and existing bodies from the SS platform was rebranded into the EuroNASCAR FJ 2020. The revived Shadow Racing Cars brand would began to compete with their own Shadow DNM8 chassis starting from the 2021 season.