The recent Cup Series Bristol Motor Speedway race was expected to produce a thriller! Firstly, because it was the eliminator and secondly because it was Bristol Baby! The high expectations came after the spring race, which left teams baffled after the rapid tire wear. NASCAR authorities too were on their toes as they were forced to issue more tires mid-race. Eventually, Denny Hamlin emerged victorious, displaying the best tire management on the grid.

Everyone expected the same thrill in the recent Bristol race, but the tire wear just wasn’t the same. Kyle Larson led 462 out of the 500 laps, sailing smoothly to victory as nobody could catch him. The mundane race has many slamming Goodyear. Often when a race is not ideal, either the tires are to blame or the car. And Dale Earnhardt Jr says it’s the car at fault this time!

Dale Earnhardt Jr blames the next-gen car for disappointing Bristol

The excessive tire wear in the first Bristol race of the year saw 54 lead changes as opposed to 8 this time. This was also because it was extremely difficult to make passes. Ask Martin Truex Jr whose last career playoffs ended up in the 24th position. After running in the top-5 all day, he fell behind thanks to a speeding penalty in the pit lane. After starting the final stage on P24, he just couldn’t gain the positions required to make it in points.

While many blamed the tire fall off, Dale Jr has held the next-gen car, responsible. In the recent episode of the Dale Jr Download, he talked about how NASCAR is using the wrong car on the wrong track. Jr said, “We bounce back and forth between where we put the blame every time we have one of these bad races oh it’s the tire, and then the next week it’s a car thing. Like you know, Denny (Hamlin) made the case this week on his show that it’s the car. And so no one’s wrong. But I’m gonna say this that race car is a sports car. That is a sports car running ovals.”

According to Dale Earnhardt Jr, the current next-gen car is not built for short tracks. He noted that a lot of unrealistic changes would have to be made to make it suitable for the track. “It’s going to probably require a narrow tire like a lot more narrow yes you got to take a lot of rubber off the racetrack and you got to pull all the underbody off the car. But is that even realistic? Are those changes real changes that can be made? They’ve invested and put so much into this thing,” he added.

Denny Hamlin echoed Jr’s words as he, too, blamed the car. In his Actions Detrimental podcast episode, Hamlin opened up about how the car problem is not being solved because many blame the tires. He said, “It is a car problem, we are trying to fix it with tires because that’s the most economical way for us to fix it.”

Hamlin is the owner of the 23XI racing team and knows how expensive upgrading the next-gen car is. “Me as a car owner I do not want to buy any more parts or pieces for this next-gen car um we already have a tough enough time keeping up with all the changes that we’ve had to do to this thing. I said years ago we got to just design a next-gen 2.0. It’s just going to be way too expensive. We just didn’t do a great job with design from the get-go,” he added.

However, not everyone in the NASCAR community agrees with Dale Jr and Hamlin.

NASCAR veteran disagrees with it being a car issue

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The Bristol winner, Larson too, jumped in on the tire vs car debate. The Hendrick driver sided with Goodyear as he reminisced on his pre-next-gen days. According to him, passing has always been tough on Bristol. However, it was easier before the next-gen car. The#5 said, “From what I remember in my career before the Next Gen car was we had cars with some disparity that could run closer to one another in traffic and a wheel/tire combo that got hotter which in essences gave us less grip on the long run. I’ve ran with 900hp all the way down to 650hp or less potentially, high downforce, low downforce and everything in between.”

Perhaps while bringing in parity, race quality has been compromised. However, Kenny Wallace disagrees with it being a car issue. He recently said, “Here’s the way I look at it. We have raced all year long and the races have been fantastic. We have one bad race at Bristol and all of a sudden, ‘Let’s get rid of the car!’” But it’s not been one bad race in Bristol. Overall NASCAR’s short track package has failed when it comes to passing and lead changes since the arrival of the next-gen car.

In the 2022 Bristol race, only three drivers ended up leading a whopping 430 laps! And guess what? The same thing happened in 2023, with just three drivers again dominating and leading 431 out of 500 laps. It’s not just a Bristol thing, either. Take the first Richmond race—two drivers led an incredible 372 out of 400 laps! It’s surprising, isn’t it?

What do you think was the issue at Bristol, the car or the tire? Let us know in the comments below.