“NA18D is anathema to everything that I am as a racing guy.” NASCAR journalist Matt Weaver wrote this line back in 2021 and with good reason. The Next-Gen era’s frustrations have been for years now. Just ask the veterans on the grid and they’ll tell you the same thing.

Ranging from single-source parts of the race car to lowered horsepower, drivers still cannot get used to the Gen-7 car. The overarching complaint is probably enhanced parity, and as it turns out, this complaint surfaced even before Next-Gen.

In March 2019, NASCAR introduced a new racing package. The results were shocking for veterans of the sport. It created pack racing with cars wide-open, planted to the surface. Although this high-parity nightmare is a thing of the past, its memory still offered shudders to insiders recently.

The NA18D package was meant to provide “some exciting racing”, according to NASCAR executive Scott Miller. What it ended up offering its drivers was a bunch of frustration due to the high downforce, 550 horsepower rules package. It featured an 8″ spoiler, 2″ splitter overhang, and vertical fencing for the radiator pan. The horsepower-reducing tapered spacer was set to 750hp for short tracks or road courses – for all ovals 1.3 miles or greater, it was 550 hp. These drastic changes caused a racing product that still offers nightmares to NASCAR insiders.

On a bright sunny day on X, a diehard NASCAR fan chose to trigger that bad memory. They shared a video of Cup Series cars racing with the NA18D package. An insider promptly shared the video and wrote what he remembered of NASCAR’s blunder: “I vaguely remember @jeff_gluck posting or livestreaming this. It was insane. And unfortunately a total tease 😂” As it turns out, Jeff Gluck remembers too: “I got duped too.” Lo and behold, even Matt Weaver jumped into this conversation, reminding people of his 2021 prophecy: “It was exactly what I said it was.”

Explaining his stance back in 2021, Weaver had explained while writing for FloRacing, “There was a close finish and closer deltas aided by well-timed cautions or arbitrary race stoppages, with executives in their suites or race control celebrating an accomplishment that only required stripping Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin of what made them such spectacular talents in the first place.”

The package led to 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick not being able to pass Joey Logano. During the 2020 Kansas Speedway race, Harvick was unable to break through the wall of air generated by the 8″ NA18D spoiler. This nightmarish parity permeated other races as well, totally taking the sport’s insiders by surprise. During another 2020 race in Las Vegas, Kurt Busch caught a fortuitous caution during green flag pit stops. It trapped several lead contenders and lent Busch the upper hand just due to his track position.

Kyle Busch, Kurt’s brother and two-time Cup Series champion, also commented on the miserable package. He commented on the Las Vegas race which his brother won: “(At Vegas) my brother and I were running 12th and 13th with Nemechek with about 30 laps to go. We took our tires, Kurt stayed out when the caution came out, inherited the lead and clean air, and won the race. So a 13th place car, went from running 13th to winning the race, so drop anyone out front and that’s possibly where they can ride.”

If there’s some compensation, Corey LaJoie took a shot at finding sense in the decision. “It’s at the intermediate with the most grip, at night and before the teams had an opportunity to optimize it. That’s peak parity.” 

Well, it is a good thing that the NA18D is a thing of the past. Around the same time when the package was active, Kyle Busch had taken NASCAR to task for another change. This was more permanent, though.

Changing a piece of legacy

Atlanta Motor Speedway was inaugurated back in 1960 when Fireball Roberts won its first race. So the 1.54-mile Hampton, Georgia racetrack is deeply embedded in NASCAR history. Kyle Busch has his own tales of success there – having won two Cup Series races in 2008 and 2013. So when the sport’s higher-ups decided to revamp and reconfigure the track in 2021, Rowdy was furious. After winning a NASCAR Xfinity Series at the track, Busch asked for a memento from NASCAR. Busch asked SMI executive Donald Hawk to send him a chunk of pavement after the bulldozers arrived. In its first reconfiguration and repaving since 1997, SMI gave the Atlanta track four extra degrees of banking from 24 to 28. It also narrowed the width of the turns by 14 inches.

But before SMI or NASCAR could implement the changes to Atlanta. Kyle Busch lent them a piece of his mind. He called them dumb for wanting to create pack racing. “If they’re going to narrow it up 15 feet, whatever it is, that’s the whole bottom groove. We’re not going to be able to run around here three-wide. You’re going to be stuck at two-wide. It’s going to be as wide as Darlington. So, trying to run around here at 210 mph because if they don’t put plates on it, you’re going to be going way too fast. Just think about it. Everybody needs to just think. There ain’t nobody thinking. Brains for sale: Never used, operating racetracks.”

Evidently, NASCAR’s decisions were not very popular around 2020 and 2021. Honestly, neither are they now, but at least journalists do not get a shudder as they do while thinking about NA18D.