Race car drivers need more than just fast-running machines; they like them to be presentable and stand out among the rest of the field. At least, Dale Earnhardt Jr. did back in the day when he raced for Hendrick Motorsports. “I drive the car. I want the dang thing to look good. I never understood drivers that don’t care about what their car looks like.”

He demanded that the side skirts on his race car be painted like the rest of the body. Well, since he retired from Cup racing, new race cars and paint techniques have replaced the old way of doing things. Despite that, he didn’t like the side skirts left untouched on the Next Gen race cars. None of the teams opted to tamper with them until this year, when a few Chevy teams could wrap their cars around the skirts. And if we are to go by the recent updates, it looks like all Chevy teams will do the same next year.

Carson Hocevar rejoices to see Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s suggestion being put to use on the race cars

So a side skirt is an essential component of a race car—an additional piece of body material that isn’t available on a street-legal car. The primary objective of having the side skirts on the race car is to increase the downforce, and considering how aero-sensitive the Gen-7 is, most of the team refrained from tampering with them.

However, Hendrick Motorsports cars #5 of Kyle Larson and #9 of Chase Elliott seemed to have adopted to wrap the side skirts. Not sure if the rookie Carson Hocevar didn’t get the memo, he was thrilled to hear that Chevy teams would be able to wrap the side skirts from next year. “so glad chevy’s are allowed to wrap side skirts next year 👌🎨” Hocevar posted on X.

Well, it turns out not only HMS cars but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. from JTG Daugherty Racing also wrapped the side skirts on his #47 race car. “Next year… 🤔🤔 not sure why y’all waited.” Stenhouse Jr. replied by sharing the snapshots of his car with wrapped skirts. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who’s long advocated bringing about this change, was glad to hear about this s update. “About damn time. 🤪”

The Ford teams aren’t sold on this feature, and even Joey Logano’s #22 title-winning car had factory-setting skirts. But who knows, this change by Chevy teams could turn out to be a new trend in the Cup garage. However, apart from the side skirts, there are a ton of changes the Next Gen would need to make to improve the on-track racing.

NASCAR needs to address these issues ahead of the 2025 season

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Ever since NASCAR rolled out its new mean machine, it has been mired in controversy. In theory, this new race car was supposed to bunch the cars together and create parity among the drivers. But, in reality, it’s turned the sport into a simulation battle where teams are looking to execute the race, thus taking the control away from drivers but rather dependent on the car and strategy.

The first big issue is the fuel mileage racing on the superspeedways. Thanks to the new style of racing, drivers are now accustomed to playing by the new trends, leading to boring initial stages of the race. The only time drivers are committed is when the stage points or the race win is on the line, and this is also when the big one is likely to happen. Increased horsepower is theoretically an easy fix, but NASCAR isn’t sold on this idea.

Next, we have the safety concerns. For the most part, the Gen-7 car has kept the driver safe and away from gruesome injuries, but they need to do something about cars flipping wildly in the air. Josh Berry, Corey LaJoie, and Tyler Reddick were all involved in nerve-wracking crashes this year. NASCAR did try to put band-aids on the car with the shark fins, but they didn’t prove to be a huge success.

Last but not least is the short-track package. Perhaps the short-oval racing is the one that has been the worst since the rollout of the new car. Goodyear has been trusted by NASCAR to change the current state of racing on traditional tracks. And just like the shark fins, the tire experiment has been hit-and-miss. Richmond has already lost a date from next year’s schedule, and if the trend continues, we might see more short tracks get a similar treatment as Richmond.

Let us hope NASCAR is aware of these major concerns and is actively working to improve the racing for the 2025 season.