“I Would Work with the Smart Engineers!” Mark Martin Gives the Perfect Idea to Fix Next-Gen Cars

Since the introduction of the Next-Gen cars in the 2022 season, the NASCAR Cup Series traces have improved but hasn’t yet matched its potential and the initial goal making racing entertaining as well as close. On his latest appearance on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, Mark Martin shared his idea to fix the 7^th Gen era racing.

The Hall of Famer told Junior that he would fix the Next-Gen cars by working the with smart engineers from the team and making the underbody of the cars not work at all. It’s an ironic solution considering the sport has spent millions in R&D to make the current underbody used in the kit car used in the top division.

Well, I would work with the engineers, the smart engineers from the teams, to make the underbody not work at all. And I know there’s a challenge, and I know why there’s an underbody because all the money was spent before.

Mark Martin said about Next-Gen cars.

Later Mark Martin asserted that he would like to have zero downforce in the front of the car. He asserted that the cars should have more downforce in the back instead and asserted that it will make racing better. It’s a bold idea and it might work considering he has raced in the pre-90s where downforce wasn’t a thing, making racing more exciting.  

So, I get it, but I would want zero downforce in the front. Zero or lift. I don’t know, start with 300 (pounds of downforce) in the back. Maybe you need more. You don’t need a ton, but you need the front to be virtually nothing. And if it’s nothing, it shouldn’t lose anything when it gets behind a car.

Mark Martin added via Dale Jr. Download.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants Mark Martin’s idea of zero downforce

The host of the podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. responded to the idea proposed by the HOF and admitted that he would love see a no downforce car on the track. He wants to see how the current generation of drivers will feel about the change, considering they have never driven Cup cars with characteristics.

I would love to watch a team try to take a Next-Gen car and get it to no downforce. I would love to watch. I’m not saying that it’s improbable. I would just love to watch someone engineer in that direction and try to achieve it and then really see what a driver thought about it on the racetrack.

Dale Earnhardt Jr said.

Further talking about the point, he admitted that an increase in downforce in the back as preposed by Martin would change the game for Goodyear, the official tire sponsor of NASCAR. He highlighted how they would have to make more durable wheels, as the rubber would burn faster than they used to.

Oh my gosh. Cause that would open up Goodyear’s window, you know, as, as the more downforce the car has, the tougher the tire has got to be, the more durable, the more heat the tire is going to produce, the more it’s going to be shoved into the racetrack.

Dale Earnhardt Jr added.

The comments from the two Hall of Famer’s seems rational, but it is highly unlikely that the sport would make such huge design change with the car they inversed million into. It would be interesting to see how the sport leadership is going approach this radical suggestion from one of the sport biggest voices.

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