Denny Hamlin claims NASCAR had a “panic moment” before unveiling the Next-Gen car
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin explained the panic moment NASCAR had before introducing the Next-Gen cars.
Denny Hamlin (Via IMAGO)
NASCAR introduced the Next-Gen car in 2022, a year after the previously agreed timeline, with the hopes of closer competition and better integration with overall technological development. While it was a success in those fronts, it came at a cost. The cars were too bad in traffic and it deprived the fans of entertaining races.
Since then, many tweaks have been made to the car as well as the tires, with the hopes of making it better and other than some minute success, it has been failure. Now JGR veteran and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin via his podcast revealed how NASCAR’s confidence about the car high before the realized the passing issue.
I tried to ask NASCAR eight months, ten months before this car was released. ‘Are you sure you have it driving correctly in traffic? All types of race tracks? This is our opportunity to build a car that is good on all different types of tracks.’ They’re like, ‘Yep, we’re sure.’
Denny Hamlin said via Action Detrimental.
He then pointed out that one month before the 2022 season, the had a panic moment realizing the issue with the car and it was an unfortunate situation. Hamlin then went onto to explain how hard everyone is the sport is working to get the car working as intended and asserted that there has been some progress that was made over the last few years.
Then they had a panic moment one month before the season or two months before the season when they actually put it in traffic and realized, you can’t pass in it. So, that was um, it’s unfortunate. We’ve just been trying to wind this ball of yarn ever since trying to get it fixed. It’s gotten better at some tracks and it seems that the tire is something certainly that shows fruit to better racing.
Denny Hamlin added.
Denny Hamlin explains how to fix short track racing
Because of the Next-Gen cars, short track racing has lost its charm in the sport and Denny Hamlin has long been suggestion multiple options to fix the issue. He pointed out that increasing the horse power will make racing much better, but has also admitted that it won’t be the gamechanger fix the sport needs.
The more you can get us out of the gas, which means if we have more horsepower, we have to let off sooner, that gives us the opportunity to overtake for the cars behind. Fifty horsepower, while it may not be a game changer, any horsepower gain will be an advantage for passing.
Denny Hamlin said.
This isn’t the first time Hamlin has made the point and many in the racing community agrees with them. Unless Goodyear can’t find the right tire to make racing better, the only way is to increase the HP and help drivers to make more meaningful passes during races.
Justin P Joy
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