Legendary NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin has admitted his worries over the state of NASCAR Cup Series racing. With the Next Gen car in its fourth season, Hamlin believes they are too planted.
“These cars are just so planted. I can’t tell you enough how much that’s the case, that they’re stuck to the racetrack,” Hamlin stated on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We have to unstick them somehow.”
With these cars being built for a more interesting race from balanced teams, it’s produced racing that sees passing very difficult.
“What we have to understand is that the parity is what is making it so hard to pass,” Hamlin explained. “It’s making it so hard to get near each other to crash which is what some fans are there to see, which is more action. It’s a tough problem.”
This was evident in the Bristol race last weekend, where cars were separated by mere tenths of a second. Drivers capable and lapping similar to that of the leading Kyle Larson weren’t able to overtake, and this is an issue.
Introduced in 2022 following the COVID pandemic, Next Gen cars brought substantial new technology to the championship. They boasted independent rear suspension over the traditional solid rear axle, a five-speed sequential gearbox, single-lug wheels, a spec chassis, and an aerodynamic overhaul.
While designed to modernise and improve the machinery of the sport, this design has seen criticism from both fans and drivers.
Hamlin has a potential remedy for the issue: adding more horsepower. “Could we at least go back to the 750 horsepower, which is only 100 more than what we got now, which would at least be a step in the right direction to make it where… these cars are just so planted,” he suggested.
NASCAR Chief Racing Development Officer John Probst said the following on adding more power and the costs associated with it.
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
“If you add the horsepower, you add the cost, then you see if it is better. There’s no guarantee you get there, and it would be any better. And I think there’s some evidence that shows as we add horsepower, they run further apart.
“There’s some that shows it’s better … and there’s some other shows no, might not be. So that’s a heck of a gamble to take with the entire industry.”
Kevin Harvick has also commented on the cars on the Happy Hour podcast, admitting that more power doesn’t necessarily result in closer, more volatile racing.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that we went to an unrestricted mile-and-a-half, and they qualified wide-open. What in the world do we need to do to get more horsepower? This screams horsepower to me.
“This is not a good scenario. I’ve heard all the things about different manufacturers and different this and different that, but I haven’t seen it. Put some damn power in the cars. Wide-open qualifying at an unrestricted mile-and-a-half racetrack is dumb.”
He continued:
“If your shoes gave you blisters on your foot, and they felt uncomfortable all the time, would you keep putting those shoes on? I don’t know why we keep putting the same shoes on.
“Why can’t we just fix the damn problem? We’ve spent millions of dollars on aerodynamics and now we’re qualifying wide-open. They made the left side tire that much softer, and they’re just hammer down.”
In this article
Alex Harrington
NASCAR Cup
Denny Hamlin
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