NASCAR is considering fielding electric cars in its second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series to give it a better brand identity among the three existing ones (Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and Craftsman Truck Series), NASCAR’s executive vice president John Probst told Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern."If you look at the brand identity of those three, the O'Reilly Series struggles a little bit just from the car perspective and you see it a lot because we refer to it often as whoever the entitlement sponsor is,” said Probst, who is also NASCAR’s chief racing development officer.The executive added that bringing EVs into the second-tier division would be part of a long-term vision for the sport’s evolution into the 2030s, which may also include experimenting with a hydrogen combustion engine in the next five years.Remember the EV Prototype NASCAR Built in 2024? Now It Wants to Race It Now, you may be aware that NASCAR’s R&D unit built its first electric vehicle prototype in 2024, a crossover utility EV developed with help from ABB. Chevrolet and Ford have designed skins for the prototype since then, but the public’s reactions were mixed.Probst said NASCAR is evaluating the potential of one day using that EV in the O’Reilly Auto Parts series (formerly known as the Xfinity Series).“Long term, you see it as, we do have that CUV body that we developed for our electric vehicle. I’m not sitting here saying today we’re breaking news it’s going to CUV, but these are the things that are on the roadmap to consider, so you’d have a Truck, a CUV and a Cup, that’s three very different bodies that are relevant for our OEMs today to create that brand identity for each series,” Probst said.While the executive suggested the shift toward EVs would happen in the long term, his comments did not go down well with NASCAR’s hardcore fans. For them, NASCAR is all about V8 internal combustion engines, so the talk of stock car racing potentially going electric—even in a second-tier series—is a big no-go.Fans Are Fuming Over the Prospect of NASCAR Electric CUV RacingProbst received significant backlash for his comments, with fans voicing strong opposition to the idea of introducing crossover EVs into the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, which is currently dominated by V8 coupes and sedans. Many fans see the series as the sport’s most competitive and entertaining division.Adam Stern’s posts on X.com got flooded with comments from NASCAR fans who seriously disagree with the Probst’s EV plans. “Let’s not ruin the O’Reilly cars and add electric vehicles,” one fan wrote, while another one said this “would be disastrous for NASCAR.”“Ruin the best series you have. Good idea,” another fan said. "Nothing shows how out of touch NASCAR leadership is with the fans of their sport more than this. Best racing in all of the top 3 divisions and they want to change it. Typical," said another one. And most of the 400+ comments are in the same vein, if less courteous.Dale Earnhardt Jr Blasts NASCAR's EV Racing Plansimage-placeholder-title But it’s not just fans who oppose the idea. Dale Earnhardt Jr, one of the legends of the sport, has warned NASCAR against electrification.“I would say that the O’Reilly Series has got a lot of good things going right now,” Earnhardt Jr said on the Dale Jr Download podcast as reported by Speedcafe. “Viewership is continuously on the rise and our cars we can all kind of relate to those cars when we look at them when we see them on the race track. Making a switch to anything unlike what we have would be a massive mistake and it would probably be the end of the rise.”Earnhardt Jr, who runs a multi-car team in the O’Reilly Series under the JR Motorsports banner, added that he would not be interested in competing anymore if NASCAR made the switch.“I’m certainly not interested in that car or that body or any of that,” he said. “Quit fiddling with everything and feeling like everything needs to be improved, fixed, changed. The series is doing really good. I don’t like the thought of the series changing vehicles and wouldn’t want to be… I don’t know how to say it, I’m just wouldn’t be interested in that.”