NASCAR drivers call for changes to the Next Gen car
Starting with the 2022 season, NASCAR introduced the Next Gen chassis for Cup Series competition. The bold new car leveled the playing field, making the cars identical from team to team.
It’s the biggest change to the racecar in the history of the sport.
So how’s the new product? Words like “stale” come into that conversation, that’s specifically true anytime the series rolls into a short track.
Last year, NASCAR was testing various new pieces for the car. They were looking to fix the aero issue that particularly surfaces on any track with one preferred groove. However, those changes never made a dent in testing and thus the installment of those pieces never came to light.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson are speaking up. They’re looking for changes. They aren’t the only ones as last year, the driver who won the most races in 2023 also called for changes.
William Byron points out issues with NASCAR’s Next Gen car
Kyle Larson comments
As of now, it doesn’t sound like anything is being done…
“I would love to see NASCAR try,” Kyle Larson told Dale Earnhardt Jr via Dirty Mo Media.
“Like, for a long time when I was in Cup, we had different rule packages, every year. I feel like with the Next Gen car, it’s become pretty stale.”
“The same thing every year. It’s the same guys up front, every week. You can kinda predict the race before the race.”
“That kinda makes me less excited about racing Next Gen cars.”
“Touching on Bristol in particular and the tire aspect side of it. As long as I’ve been racing at Bristol, there’s never been tire wear.”
“Since we’ve gone to the Next Gen car, the track doesn’t get as black as it used to. The rubber doesn’t stick to the track.”
“I don’t think we necessarily need a tire that’s going to wear. Build a tire that can like stick the rubber to the track. Tires on top of rubber that’s stuck to the track, it just doesn’t grip that well.”
“Then, we’re sliding around more. And we’re having to slow down more and be more precise on our corners and making more mistakes.”
“Which is what you see in Xfinity. There’s definitely room to improve. But, Bristol’s still fun.”
What is the cost of the NASCAR Next Gen racecar?
Denny Hamlin comments
“This is the car we’ve built,” Hamlin stated via Actions Detrimental.
“This is what ownership of NASCAR wanted. They wanted to build a sportscar and we’re going to race this sportscar on all these different tracks. And, it just doesn’t race well.”
“I mean, I think that there are fixes that we can do to it. But, I’m not in charge.”
“I’m part of NASCAR meetings, there’s nothing on the horizon. There’s been no discussion to fixing things that really need to be addressed on it.”
“You got a front end that’s not on the ground. It’s in the air because we have to feed the underbody of the car.”
“As soon as we get behind somebody that thing just lifts right on up. You got no front downforce. We gotta get more overbody, less underbody. That’s what the Xfinity car has.”
“The advantages of the Xfinity car is that the second place guy can manipulate the leader. In Cup cars, you cannot. In Xfinity, you just drive right up to their bumper and it takes their rear downforce away. They get wiggle waggle up the race track they go.”
Hamlin added, “Then, you’ve got passing.”
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