The second wild card race of the postseason made history with its finishers. For the first time in any NASCAR Playoffs, there wasn’t a single playoff driver in the top 5. Chris Buescher made it to the victory lane after racing at 36 road courses, and Shane van Gisbergen closely trailed him for the runner-up. The race was as exciting as it gets, especially after the issues faced by Next Gen cars on road courses. However, drivers have been complaining about speed since it was reduced from 1000HP to 750HP. NASCAR keeps on making changes to improve the racing, but not much has come out of it.

This time around at The Glen Cup race, some problems made the race unpredictable. One of those is the short braking zones. While this is not a newly identified problem, the same was a major cause of concern for Ty Gibbs as he finished 22nd in the race this weekend.

What is Ty Gibbs’ grievance with NASCAR?

As highlighted in previous road course races, the short braking zones leave fewer passing opportunities experienced by Next Gen cars. What this means is that the turns on these tracks are too close by, ripping the drivers off overtaking chances. To overcome this roadblock, drivers have been urging NASCAR to increase speed limits. Greater speeds will help drivers to pass on full throttle before approaching the next turn.

Jeff Gluck from The Teardown asked Ty Gibbs why the tire fall-off wasn’t seen on the track as expected and Gibbs responded, “Until you put 900 HP in these things you cannot pass. Sometimes I think this car was designed for us not to pass because it is so hard to pass compared to the Xfinity car.” Ty Gibbs raced in the Xfinity race on the same track a day before and as per him, passing wasn’t an issue.

But it wasn’t exactly the cars that were the problem, or even the speeds. It had more to do with the opposite of what was anticipated. As Christopher Bell also mentioned, there wasn’t enough tire wear, impacting the entire team’s tire strategies. And as some other drivers like Chris Buescher noted the cautions fell made a lot of difference on who landed where. So, the race results were greatly impacted by a mixed bag of out-of-the-box events and unmet expectations.

Nonetheless, the reduced car speeds have a part to play, as drivers aren’t most capacitated to perform without it. Drivers who want to make a move can truly go wild if they know they can, as they used to before 2015. But pushing limits wasn’t an option at the Go Bowling track yesterday. Although the race results were pretty terrific, the playoff drivers suffered massive casualties, literally and figuratively. Considering all the factors, the Reddit users majorly agreed with Ty Gibbs’ opinion.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the talent,” commented a fan

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The racing becomes noncompetitive when the room to perform is taken away. That’s the ailment associated with the Next Gen cars. One fan ranted on Reddit, “I had seen some other posts talking about how competitive the field is in this era. I don’t think it has anything to do with the talent and everything to do with what Ty and many other drivers have been saying. It’s the car design and that got can’t make passes. And it’s the shares SMT that allows all the drivers to copy each other which makes it that much harder.”

NASCAR had made the change in the cars to allow other manufacturers to easily enter the sport and also to enhance the engine’s life. But that has proven counterproductive for the motorsport’s essence, annoying many NASCAR lovers as well as insiders. A disappointed fan wrote, “It still floors me that they won’t go there. The engine is made for 900+. Take the damn tapered spacer off it and let it sing.”

It is the earnest wish of all NASCAR fans to see the best of what the motorsport has to offer. And capping the speed and blocking the car’s and driver’s potential is not helpful. One user rightly added, “Dudes at local short tracks running late models and modifieds on dirt got more power than these cup cars…you’ll never convince me it can’t or shouldn’t be done in this series.”

When people start appreciating other series over NASCAR’s top series, then it is evident that a change is imperative. “It’s absolutely hilarious looking at cup drivers after they get out of the Xfinity cars. Everyone is smiling, they are all happy, and you can tell they truly love racing. Then they go race Sunday and it’s all pissed off and unhappy,” mocked a user.

While NASCAR executives agree that the change is needed, they’re certainly not willing to bring it right away. And drivers had borne with it, but they’re starting to get weary, especially the younger ones.