NASCAR Finally Responds to Growing Demands to Scrap Next-Gen Car In 2022, NASCAR introduced Gen-7 cars, aka Next Gen cars, with a primary goal to lower costs for teams. Before the launch, series president Steve Phelps hoped this new generation of cars would not only be more stylish but also race better with refined aerodynamics. However, over the years, the charm of the new tech has faded away. Many fans and drivers have pointed out glaring issues with the car’s performance, especially on short tracks. The main reasons these cars struggle more on the short track are excessive tire grip and the dirty air the cars’ flat underbody produces, which makes it difficult for trailing drivers to pass. While fans demand a total reset, NASCAR’s President Steve O’Donnell is eyeing a more reasonable solution. On Tuesday’s episode of the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast, he said: “I agree with the fans in terms of where we can make improvements. So if you look at the intermediates… let’s go back to why we put this car together, right? The teams were out of control in terms of money, and it was not sustainable. We didn’t have any new owners coming in. If they did, they were gone. Guys winning championships, out of the sport. And so when we looked ahead for that model of where are we going to go, we didn’t see a bright future.” He further highlighted how the car isn’t perfect, but it did succeed in bringing new life to the paddock. “We thought working with the industry to come up with a car model that would kind of try to curtail some of the costs. Not perfect by any means, right? But we saw new owners come in, we saw new teams win, which is great for the sport. We got some things right, the intermediates, and then we got some stuff to work on,” O’Donnell added. He then shared that NASCAR is looking to add more horsepower to the short track packages and improving balance for Superspeedways. The mechanical changes will continue to evolve and make the racing product better. Learning From Other Series to Improve NASCAR’s Next Gen Car When Freddy Craft, host of the aforementioned podcast, asked Stve O’Donnell if there were specific elements from the O’Reilly Series package that could be used to fix the current issues with the Next Gen car, he replied: “Yeah, absolutely. I think we take stuff each and every day, not just from our own series, but other series that are out there as well.” However, O’Donnell emphasized that any changes must be calculated and planned far in advance to maintain balance within the sport. “We look at every part and piece. The thing that we got to keep in mind, and this is tough for fans to hear, is we got to make changes, but we got to think well ahead of where we’re going.” The goal is to keep the competition fresh without catching teams off guard. He added, “So the challenge for us is: get ahead of it, make sure that we give teams ample notice, don’t let them test a ton, but introduce some new things so that we mix it up each and every year and you don’t have the same guys winning every race.” So far in 2026, Tyler Reddick and Toyota’s dominance has led the headlines. The ‘mixing up’ of race winners should ideally arrive as the season progresses, irrespective of changes in the package. Trending slideshow: 10 NASCAR Names Who Are Pure Dominance in The Next-Gen Era
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