Roger Penske’s Representative Reveals How NASCAR Has Made it “Harder to Solve the Problem” With the Next-Gen Car

Whilst NASCAR officials have been involved with Kyle Larson’s waiver dilemma as of late, the biggest concern for most drivers and teams is flying under the radar. Ever since the Next-Gen car debuted, stakeholders have been under the notion that the stock cars have strayed so far away from their namesakes that even the pit crew finds working on them to be quite challenging.

That being said, the NASCAR fraternity and fans alike, never quite had an opportunity to fully understand the problems plaguing drivers in the Next-Gen era. Fortunately, this weekend’s Cup Series winner shed light on the biggest grievance of them all.

Austin Cindric believes the Next-Gen car’s complexity has a detrimental effect on teams

When the Next-Gen car was introduced, the idea was that shifting focus toward the aerodynamic front would help with making the action more enticing. Unfortunately, like the fate of other sports, NASCAR also found itself growing increasingly complex because of this decision. Instead of a focus on just the powertrain and a driver’s ability to pass the competition, the Next-Gen car required a major effort on all fronts.

Gone were the days of simplicity. Instead, any setup woes that now arise with the Next-Gen car usually plague the team for the entirety of the weekend. The reason? Austin Cindric believes that it has a lot to do with the amount of data and analysis needed to be competitive.

Speaking on the Dale Jr Download, the #2 Penske driver shared, “I’ll say for every member on the team, whether that’s crew chiefs, engineers, drivers, or mechanics, it’s the conversation of, ‘Well everybody is got the same stuff. You’re gonna have the same thing that he has. Whether it’s your teammate coming with the same setup or guys we’re racing against that are running better than we are.’ You know, that conversation…you’d think it would make it easier to find the problem but it makes it harder to solve the problem.” Cindric’s remark might highlight a lesser-known, yet potentially damaging, factor to NASCAR.

According to Cindric, previous generations of the Cup Series challengers didn’t face this dilemma. Back when a team solely needed to focus on their setup and not rely on other teams for their groundbreaking discoveries, turning around a sour weekend was much easier.

Cindric further added, “It was much easier to just go, yup, we’re gonna look at ourselves, we’re gonna make this solution, and we’re gonna see how it is. (Now) It’s not that easy to just go, yeah we’re gonna look at ourselves and we’re gonna make a decision and this is gonna make us better because we’ve researched on why. It’s a lot harder to kind of point a finger at where those things are. Because if I could drive deeper in the corner, I would. If I could get on the gas sooner, I would.” Coming from Cindric, the points would be considered coming out of experience and expertise.

With the Next-Gen car increasing the variables that are required to be in perfect order for a team to win, Cindric believes things may be oversaturated. However, whilst the plethora of data available each weekend to teams could make it difficult to decipher the ideal setup, it could also reflect poorly on drivers.

Cindric highlights the true depth of NASCAR’s SMT data analytics as “a wild thing”

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Ever since NASCAR started to provide all Cup teams with access to SMT data from the competition, stakeholders have been split with its value. Many believe it to be a valuable tool that gives insight into the competition thereby allowing teams to get closer to each other. That being said, some drivers like Kyle Busch also felt it took away from the mysterious and exciting aspect of entering a weekend without any prior knowledge.

However, while the NASCAR world continues to debate over the usage of live SMT data, Austin Cindric highlighted the privilege it brings to drivers, and in turn, an added layer of expectation. He shared with Earnhardt Jr, “In forms of motorsports, I talked to IMSA drivers, Indycar drivers, and guys in the Formula 1 industry. The fact that I have Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson’s driver data, that sounds like gold when you tell it to these guys.”

In categories like Formula 1,  team data is treated as intellectual property and thereby no competitors have access to each other’s information. Many teams go to great lengths to hide any developments they’ve made until necessary. So when drivers from such series find out that NASCAR competitors have an open book policy, many can’t help but feel envious.

Unfortunately, this also leaves the NASCAR drivers with a lot riding on their shoulders. Seemingly with an advantage over other categories, being close to the competition is essential. Reflecting on this, Cindric concludes, “The fact that I have that (data) and can’t beat them every week makes me feel like talking to them I’m just maybe not good enough. So it’s a wild thing that we have access to in comparison, and it can be that much more draining when you have all that information and are still unable to produce it.”

At the end of the day, access to so much information and data paired with the complexities of the Next-Gen cars makes the Cup Series even tougher than most would expect. That being said, what do you think is the biggest drawback of the Next-Gen car?