What is the solution to stop the Next Gen cars from flipping upside down? We saw NASCAR mandate the addition of shark fins at the speedways; it did its job, but again, it wasn’t the most convincing solution. Last weekend, Tyler Reddick took a wild ride flipping over upside down at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But this time around it wasn’t the car, but the racetrack was the reason behind the #45 Toyota Camry being tossed in the air.

Denny Hamlin, without any filters, questioned SMI’s motives and reignited the beef he had with Marcus Smith, the CEO of SMI earlier this year. “This is a track problem,” Hamlin said on Action’s Detrimental. It isn’t the case of Hamlin trying to paint SMI as the villain, but the problem with the racetrack is a genuine one. Even Kevin Harvick has now come out in support of Hamlin’s theory by sharing his take on Reddick’s accident.

SMI didn’t learn from Ryan Preece’s Daytona crash, says Kevin Harvick

Cars flipping during NASCAR races is not new, but back in the day these flips and wild barrel rolls were the result of big crashes. In the Gen-7 car, all it takes is a sketchy angle, a car sliding down the track, and a pocket of air. However, in Reddick’s case, the cause of the wild flip was the section of grass in the infield.

After being crammed out of space by Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. in Stage 2, the #45 rammed into the rear of #6 and made its way on the grass patch. But as soon as Reddick cleared the grass section, sliding onto the asphalt once again, his race car was lifted in the air and did a 360 before landing on its four wheels.

This was somewhat similar to Ryan Preece’s violent crash at Daytona a year ago. Again, in Preece’s case, his car lost traction once it hit the grass patch. There has to be a fix by either NASCAR or SMI in the way they prepare the venue for races. This was Kevin Harvick’s opinion. “I hate that the car turned over; I still think that’s a product of the depth of the grass and the way that grass is lift up onto that quarter mile. We saw that at Daytona; I wish they would standardize some sort of quality of the infield and the height of the grass.” Harvick said this on the Happy Hour podcast.

Moreover, he also felt like neither Elliott nor Truex Jr. were malicious in the way they raced. Instead, he highlighted another issue with the Gen-7 car. “19 was getting tight and coming up the racetrack into the 9. It’s like those cars will get glued together when they take off tight, and that’s what probably happened to the 19 car and the 9 couldn’t get out of the middle.”

Regardless of the crash and a DNF, Harvick urged Tyler Reddick to turn up for the next race at Homestead if he wants to make the Championship 4.

Reddick needs to execute and deliver at Homestead this week

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The 23XI Racing driver is in a tough spot in terms of points after the end of the first race in the Round of 8. Despite bagging 10 stage points in the stage 1 win, Tyler Reddick finds himself 30 adrift of the safe spot.

“We had a really, really fast Jordan Brand Toyota Camry, probably would have been in the mix all race long, but we will go to Homestead — a place where I have had to get it done before — and go for it there,” he added after finishing the race early in Vegas.

Out of his last four starts at a mile-and-a-half track in Miami, he’s registered three top 5 finishes. However, the same cannot be said for Martinsville, as in his last four fall races, he’s not even delivered a top-10 result.

Therefore, Miami Homestead looks to be the place where he would be able to lock himself in for his first championship race. Describing the upcoming two races as a must-win scenario for the playoff drivers, Harvick added, “I don’t see Tyler Reddick; he’s not winning the Martinsville. This is his shot to win the championship; he’s got to go win Homestead and get himself in the position to do that. And if he does that, he really mixes the points up because of the guys that you would put out.”

Not just Reddick, a lot of big guns like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson drew blanks at Vegas. So expect this weekend’s race at Homestead to be a high-voltage affair, as every team and driver is desperately trying to avoid being in a must-win scenario at Martinsville.