NASCAR Dramatically Overhauls Cup Series Cars Ahead of Daytona Return
What’s Happening? While NASCAR turned its focus to working on the short track racing product of the Next Gen car earlier…
NASCAR legend Cole Pearn called out NASCAR for the shortcomings of its Next Gen car in a rare post to social media Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, NASCAR officials took a big swing at improving their superspeedway racing product by announcing changes to NASCAR Cup Series cars for the upcoming race at Daytona International Speedway.
While the package reduces horsepower from roughly 510 to 465, the overhaul also lowers the spoiler height from 7 inches to 4 inches, resulting in a significant drop in downforce.
This long-awaited change was aimed at creating passing opportunities for drivers, rather than the two-by-two traffic jam that has become synonymous with superspeedway racing since the introduction of the NASCAR Next Gen car in 2022.
Of course, the car, which is about as untraditional as the sport has ever seen, has had its fair share of pushback, specifically from traditionalists.
Its spec design, single lug nuts, and overall build have been ridiculed and blamed for bad racing over the past few seasons. Thursday morning, even after NASCAR took this latest swing at fixing superspeedway racing, the blows kept coming.
What’s Happening? While NASCAR turned its focus to working on the short track racing product of the Next Gen car earlier…
This time, it came from a familiar voice, former Furniture Row Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief Cole Pearn.
In a rare post to his X account, the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series Champion said, “At what point do these donkeys admit that they completely fumble fucked the design of this car?”
Pearn’s post, his second this month, quickly took off, with fans eating up its pointed nature.
Of course, Pearn has just one race under his belt as Crew Chief of a Next Gen car, calling the shots for his long-time friend and driver Martin Truex Jr during Truex’s most recent start in the 2025 Daytona 500 for TRICON Garage.
That race did not give Pearn a real chance to get a feel for the car, as the team completed only 71 laps before wrecking out. Still, it was only his first race since Pearn shockingly resigned from his role at JGR at the conclusion of the 2019 season.
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