Dale Earnhardt Jr Provides Audacious Solution to Denny Hamlin’s Rant About the Next Gen Car

It is safe to say not many drivers are fond of how the NASCAR Next Gen cars handle at short tracks. One of the chief critics is Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin. Recently, Hamlin tweeted that at this point, the sport needed a Next Gen 2.0 just to improve the racing. Now, Dale Earnhardt Jr responded to Hamlin’s tweet and admittedly, it was a little cryptic.

Dale Jr’s tweet was simply a bunch of Xfinity Series cars, which at first glance, can mean anything. However, conventional wisdom does suggest that his solution is to have the Xfinity Series teams act as the guinea pigs for the Next Gen cars. From there, NASCAR can gauge how the cars tick before implementing them in the Cup Series.

Will Dale Earnhardt Jr and the Xfinity teams be willing to do this?

To be fair, this would be hugely beneficial for many parties. A lot of Xfinity teams are tied with the Cup teams, like JR Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and many more. Incidentally, Dale Earnhardt Jr is the part-owner of JR Motorsports, and Hamlin is a team owner as well. From a driver’s perspective, they will be able to gain experience with the Next Gen cars. So by the time they reach the Cup Series, there is not that great a difference between the Cup and Xfinity cars.

Meanwhile, the Xfinity and Cup Series teams can potentially share data and try to improve each others’ performances. Of course, one has to wonder whether there will be a Next Gen truck, sometime in the future. After all, NASCAR cannot simply focus all of its efforts on just one series. There needs to be uniform technological progress across all three series. For now, NASCAR will soon wrap up its first season with the Next Gen Cup cars before looking ahead to the future.