When NASCAR introduced the Next-Gen car in 2022, it came with much fanfare, promising more to drivers, teams, and fans. It aimed to create a cost-saving platform while providing a level playing field, promising all teams, even the ones that would typically be outside the top 10, to have better performance. This meant more competitive action across tracks and faster cars.

However, many of the promises made by NASCAR for its Next-Gen cars continue to be undelivered. Track records suggest cars are objectively slower; dependency on a single supplier means there is no pricing control; and too much parity has resulted in boring races. These factors have forced fans to ask the all-important question, has the Next-Gen car been a failure?

How has NASCAR’s Next-Gen car fared?

If track records are anything to go by, NASCAR’s ‘year of speed’ was 2014, as 10 qualifying track records were set that year from the 26 Cup Series tracks. In comparison, the Next-Gen car has been, on average, 8.43 mph slower on the same tracks, a telling indication of NASCAR’s unfulfilled promise. Has the Next-Gen car created better racing?

Objectively, no, as cars have too much parity, which has not resulted in better competition but rather a situation where the fastest car cannot pass the slowest car.

NASCAR fans want parity where several cars are in the conversation to be favorites to win a race, and the fastest car depends on the team that can nail their setup. As things stand, it’s a case of all cars being very similar, which means races are boring because drivers cannot outperform their rivals on the track. Moreover, the sport is evolving into an endurance race, with ‘all-out racing’ taking a backseat to make way for fuel conservation strategies. What does this mean? Cars are running slower on purpose, just to get better fuel mileage.

With a greater emphasis on maintaining track positions, relying on cautions to conserve fuel, and outlasting, instead of outperforming rivals, it’s fair to say that the Next-Gen car hasn’t lived up to its promise yet. If the 2024 Cup Series season is anything to go by, the Next-Gen car has shown it has issues in traffic with dirty air, an engine package that has been a persistent talking point during the entire duration of the car’s existence, and short-track races that leave much to be desired for.

From a cost-efficiency standpoint, the Next-Gen car has not helped teams save costs at all. Instead, it has become more expensive, especially if you factor in development. With no pricing control and reliance on a single supplier, teams can be charged exorbitant amounts of money in the future to remain competitive.

If NASCAR aims to grow as a sport while prioritizing sustainability, it will need to listen to its key stakeholders. Criticism about the Next-Gen car has not just been limited to team owners and fans, as high-profile drivers such as Denny Hamlin have also voiced their concerns time and again.

Denny Hamlin blasts Next-Gen cars’ poor performance

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Very few drivers have been publicly outspoken about the Next-Gen car, but Denny Hamlin is one of them. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has spoken about the car’s performance after the races in Richmond and Martinsville this year and highlighted those issues once again after the Brickyard 400. With cars struggling to overtake each other at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, getting a result on the iconic oval depended on track position and fuel conservation strategies, factors that irked Hamlin.

Speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast about Brickyard 400, Denny Hamlin said, “If you would have asked me to pass anyone in that final stage, it was just not gonna happen. It’s just physics. It’s just that we’re in a weird spot where the leader has such an advantage on that track because he’s got the clean air. You can run so much faster when you have the clean air. We all know these Next Gen cars are terrible on drafting. They’re the worst cars in NASCAR in traffic.”

Following his second Cup Series race win of the season at Richmond, Hamlin had described the Next-Gen cars as “horrendous”. After the race at Martinsville Speedway, the 43-year-old criticized the car’s ability to make passes, saying, “You created a next-gen of drivers that all drive the same, because its clear the optimum way to drive it. So how are you going to create passing? You will not!”

If NASCAR wants to adopt a more long-term outlook, it needs to prioritize what fans, teams, and drivers want. Fans want to see more competitive action on track, as well as faster cars, while drivers and teams want more cost-efficiency, better performance, an improved short-track package, and better safety standards. The ball is in NASCAR’s court to do what needs to be done, it remains to be seen if they will follow through.

What are your thoughts about the Next-Gen car? Let us know in the comments!