Denny Hamlin details the way to fix poor short-track racing in the Next-Gen era, claims ‘aero is not the answer’
Denny Hamlin has been a long-time advocate of increasing Next-Gen car’s horsepower.
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Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin, Charllotte May 2022 (Credits: IMAGO)
The Next-Gen car was introduced to NASCAR ahead of the 2022 season to make racing closer and more affordable. But it came at a cost, the racing in short-track hasn’t been the best at times and the fan attendance has come down in such a track where NASCAR’s soul resides. Fixing the issue is the priority for NASCAR at the moment.
One of the biggest demands the Cup driver has made to fix this issue has been increasing the horsepower of the car. Denny Hamlin has been one of the drivers championing the proposal and he has doubled down on it in a recent podcast appearance with Dale Earnhardt Jr. He pointed out that fixing the grip-to-horsepower ratio.
Aero(dynamics) is not the answer. It’s a grip-to-horsepower ratio that we have tightened up over the last 10 years, really. We used to be 900 horsepower and tires used to fall off a bunch. Now the tires don’t fall off and you have less horsepower, so it doesn’t wear it out.
Hamlin said via Dale Jr. Download.
Hamlin went on to point out that the Next-Gen car has less downforce of all time in sports history and it has resulted in less tire wear. He pointed out that the sport is in a situation where the downforce is going down the tier are becoming softer.
We have less downforce than we’ve ever had. So, less downforce equals less tire wear. So as they continue to keep taking downforce off, you’ve got to move the tire with it to make it beyond soft. I’m talking about gumball soft.
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Denny Hamlin debunks the claims of less horse-power reducing the budget
Hamlin is not just a veteran race car driver who has seen the evolution of the sport, he is a team owner as well. He co-owns 23XI Racing with NBA legend Michael Jordan and has a unique perspective to share unlike many other drivers in the sport with the access he has within the sport.
The Toyota driver claimed that reducing the horsepower hasn’t brought down the cost as it was expected and the cost is the as same It used to be. Hamlin says he is clueless as to why NASCAR isn’t increasing the horsepower.
I can tell you as a team owner, our engine bills when it is 700 or 800 horsepower versus right now is no different…I don’t understand why going back and taking a 50-cent piece of aluminum that it a tapered spacer, opening that thing back up to 750, I can’t make sense of why we’re not doing it.
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Justin P Joy
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