Following a “frustrating” race weekend at Iowa Speedway, NASCAR Hall of Famer and TV analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. aired his frustrations and hopes for NASCAR’s Next Gen car during the latest episode of his podcast, The Dale Jr. Download.
This past Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway disappointed many fans and industry members. While a hot crowd packed the stands, the sport’s top division put on a lackluster showing on track.
Of course, this was expected, as on short tracks, the NASCAR Next Gen, or Generation Seven, race car often fails to deliver a traditional short track race. Cars often fail to pass one another, meaning that on-track competition goes by the wayside for track position-based strategy, with the leading car often playing simple defense against a trailing car.
Fans, industry members, and NASCAR officials have debated, pondered, and overanalyzed the cars on track action furiously throughout the week. This dialogue carried over to this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, where Dale Earnhardt Jr opened up his thoughts on the now four-year-old car.
First and foremost, Earnhardt, who most consider to be a traditionalist, expressed not only frustration with the car’s non-traditional aspects, such as a rear diffuser, low-profile tires, and sports car influence, but also his acceptance that the sport and it’s teams are already invested in the car, and no amount of complaining is going to help its performance.
“I want to say that I don’t love the Next Gen car, but it’s here. I don’t love the Next Gen car…. It’s an IMSA car. It’s a sports car. It’s got a diffuser. It’s got low-profile tires, it’s got big rims and big brakes. It’s a sports car. It’s not a NASCAR stock car, but it’s here. Everybody’s invested. There’s millions of dollars already way down the road and the car’s here. It’s on the track. It’s not changing. It’s not going anywhere… It doesn’t do me any good to sit here and bitch about the f****** lack of tire fall off or the inability to pass. It’s frustrating.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt, a veteran broadcaster now working with NASCAR’s new TV partners, Prime Video and TNT Sports, shares the feelings of many fans about the car. However, as someone in the industry who wants to see that industry succeed, he feels a responsibility to show off and preach that “the race is good and the product is good.”
But, the 50-year-old Xfinty Series team owner and NASCAR veteran has a hard time doing so at times, professing that, despite its flaws, the car is hit and miss with him.
“I see things during those races, like getting down into turn one, Erik Jones behind somebody, maybe Byron or somebody. And Byron shut the damn air off to the 43 car and f****** up the racetrack Erik Jones went, and I’m like, ‘God, I f****** hate this car.’ But then there’s moments where I enjoy watching the races, and I don’t mind the car or the car puts on a great show.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr.
However, his comments did not end here with the typical love-hate relationship that NASCAR fans have with the Next Gen car on an almost weekly basis.
Earnhardt’s focus eventually shifted to the car’s build, which many have pointed out resembles the cars used in IMSA or the Australian Supercars.
Earnhardt pointed out the car’s rear diffuser and asked, “Would I have ever built a NASCAR stock car that had a diffuser? No.”
Then, continuing to add to the list of things he would have done differently, Earnhardt moved on to the tires, saying, “I wouldn’t have put a low-profile tire on it and changed the side walls so the drivers can’t feel the tire.”
He followed up by asking why NASCAR added “great brakes” to the Next Gen car, comparing the current brakes to those used in the past, with Martinsville as a reference point.
“We used to race at Martinsville, and the brakes would fade and you’d have to take care of your brakes, and the braking zone was long enough to be able to kind of charge into a corner and do things different to try to make passes.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This discussion would continue into the car’s digital rear-view mirror, with Earnhardt saying that removing them is “one thing that I think we could change today.”
Towards the end of the discussion about the car’s modern aspects, Earnhardt returns to the single lugnut wheel, the first ever used in NASCAR, pointing out that this aspect is not only untraditional for NASCAR but also not applicable to real-world production cars. As he puts it, “Ain’t no signal lugs rolling around on the street.”
While Earnhardt can list the things he wouldn’t have done in building the car, he does offer a solution, wishing that NASCAR would bring in outside help to “make a couple of changes or steer the thing in a different direction,” though he then says, “That’s not gonna happen.”
As one of the most respected voices in the sport, Earnhardt’s comments about the sport will likely resonate with more people than the many fans who have criticized the Gen Seven car since its introduction in 2022. But, just like the fans online asking questions and suggesting changes, Earnhardt says these things because he wants the sport to succeed.
“I believe in a successful NASCAR, and I want NASCAR to succeed and be the best thing going,” Earnhardt said.
While it’s important to look to the future, Earnhardt suggests that the answers to fixing the car are somewhere in the past, “The answers are all laying right there in our past,” Earnhardt said. “We’re worried about being modern and having a race car that all the kids are gonna love, you know, with cool diffusers and mag wheels.”
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