Chase Elliott confesses to Kyle Busch that Next-Gen car forced him to ‘change his driving style’
Ex-NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott told Kyle Busch that he changed his racing style to adjust to the 7th Gen era car.
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Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott (Via IMAGO)
Since the introduction of the Next-Gen cars in the 2022 season, the drivers have been complaining about different things with the aerodynamic features and limited horsepower making racing hard. This has made even the championship winners such as Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch and Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott uncomfortable.
Recently two times champion Kyle Busch shared his feelings about the issues with the car in Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour Podcast and recalled his conversation with Chase Elliott on it. He revealed that since both of them have a similar junior tier racing experience and recalled the No:9 Chevy driver admitting he was forced change his driving style to suit the cars.
I’ve had some long conversations with Chase Elliott because we grew up the same way. Like, racing super late models across the country and those style of cars. And I’m like, ‘Man, have you found this thing to just be a beast? Like a challenge?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve had to change my driving style.’ Just like what you just said.
Kyle Busch said via Happy Hour Podcast.
But unlike the youngster, Busch couldn’t change his racing style that earned him two championships over the years, that easily. He admitted that finding a feeling for the current generation cars is like finding a needle in a haystack. Despite all these challenges, they have had multi-race win season in the Next-Gen era, but also had single win year and a winless year. It shows talent always reward, if they get some advantage from the cars.
I’m like, I don’t know how to do that. I have a feel that I’m looking for and when we get that feel I can have the same feel as the old car and be fast with it, but dude, trying to find that is like a needle in a haystack.
Kyle Busch added.
Chase Elliott gives his verdict on Next-Gen cars’ short-track racing improvement
One major issue that the Next-Gen car has produced is the less entertaining racing product in the short tracks. This has made some legacy tracks to lose its place in the schedule and has affected the attendance in some of those events alongside TV rating.
NASCAR has been using option-tier to fix the issues, but that hasn’t earned the desired results. Some veterans have long been calling for increasing the horsepower, but NASCAR has decided against it, as they see it as a huge gamble.
Talking about the issue, the Hendrick Motorsports driver pointed out that he doesn’t know how to fix it and admitted he doesn’t wont to act like he have answers to issues.
If there’s one thing I have learned throughout me doing this, it is that just when you think you start to figure something out, you don’t. Whatever you think you know, you probably didn’t to begin with. So, I certainly don’t act like I have the answers.
Chase Elliott said.
Chase Elliott admits it is tough to end the complaints about racings
Further talking about the point, Chase Elliott shared the thought process and attitude of the racing community regarding issues regarding racing. He highlighted that there is no fix to the Next-Gen car that is going to make everyone happy and someone will always have complaints.
It’s a super easy thing to say. We’ll do that and somebody will have something to complain about after that. So, you’ll never make everybody happy.
Chase Elliott said.
The comments from the 2020 Cup champion shows the most reasonable things most of the drivers can do regarding the issues with the cars is to adjust their racing style with it and focus on winning races. It will be interesting to see if the other drivers in the garage shares similar feelings.
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