A new year, but the same old complaint. Ever since NASCAR rolled out the Next Gen car in 2022, drivers have never been fully content. Ranging from untoward crashes to a lack of maneuverability, the car has faced immense criticism. Last year, things reached a head when this problem combined with NASCAR’s controversial DVP (Damaged Vehicle Policy). Although the latter is changing, Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez is still critical.

Two high-profile Cup Series races were the hot seats of controversy last season. The Hollywood Casino 400 and the YellaWood 500 were where NASCAR’s egregious display of inconsistency was apparent. And according to Suarez, the Next-Gen just makes it harder for officials.

Daniel Suarez takes a cautious approach

Well, it all began with Josh Berry’s bad luck at Kansas Speedway. A collision with Harrison Burton on the first lap left him with flat tires. Although the repairs would have been minor, NASCAR red-flagged him for the rest of the race. Then Talladega witnessed a massive 28-car wreck. Officials allowed the cars of Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, and Harrison Burton to be repaired, while the others were ignored. This flagrant inconsistency riled up the NASCAR community, with crew chiefs expressing their concern. Even journalist Jeff Gluck drummed up his criticism on social media.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was confused about the rule. Last year, cars with minimal damage could be towed back and repaired within a 7-minute window. In 2025, however, NASCAR has removed that time limit. Trackhouse Racing star Daniel Suarez thinks that is a good call. “I think it’s a great decision because NASCAR put themselves in a little bit of a delicate situation with their five-minute clock or sometimes it was eight or something like that. They were the bad guys… And I felt that they were getting a lot of people mad for them doing their jobs.”

However, Daniel Suarez is not entirely discounting a controversy-less season. He focused on the Next-Gen car’s inherent faults, which ended up confusing official decisions as well. “I think it’s a great call that they get that out of the way. You know, cars getting stuck sometimes with flat tires. These cars are not designed to have flat tires. That’s plain and simple. The car is flat underneath, the car is very low to the ground. They have to do some things to the shocks to help that… But still though, it’s a little bit tricky to move the car around.” 

Changing the Next-Gen car’s aspects may take longer, as NASCAR is nowhere close to raising horsepower levels. However, other insiders are also hopeful about the new DVP rule.

Giving off a good outlook overall

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Besides the Kansas and the Talladega incidents, another incident displayed the exercise of the DVP rule. During the 2024 Watkins Glen race, Ryan Blaney bumped into a big wreck on the very first lap. His car was damaged beyond repair, and it was towed straight to the pits. This decision was viewed as correct, given that Blaney could not have driven back his car.

However, it still shows NASCAR’s inconsistency when viewed against Josh Berry’s debacle or the ‘Big One’ in Talladega. So the new policy for 2025 is a welcome change. Now teams can repair cars without time constraints in the garage, as long as the cars meet minimum speed requirements upon their return to the track.

This fresh wind of change received approval from not only Daniel Suarez but a Spire Motorsports crew chief as well. Luke Lambert made his hopeful views known: “NASCAR is putting things back in the team’s hands. Hopefully, it’s gonna result in not having any situations where you have a really strong contender outside of the race that could have a quick repair and get back in… This is about giving teams a chance to control their destiny and keeping NASCAR out of the repair process. It’s what we’ve needed for a long time.”

Evidently, NASCAR is changing for the better. However, there is still a long way to go, as the Next-Gen car continues to irk drivers like Daniel Suarez.