NASCAR Comes Under Fire For Inadequate Testing of Next Gen Car – ‘You Cannot Pass’

NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin has claimed that the sport did not test the Next Gen car enough to make it suitable for all types of race tracks and feels that it does not support quick overtakes. Hamlin’s statements arrive after he pointed out a horsepower deficit problem in the car.

Despite its introduction in 2022, many believed the Gen-7 car failed to offer an impressive racing spectacle. Hamlin, who became a co-owner of the 23XI Racing team in 2020, revealed that it was too late by the time the teams realized that the cars were not good enough, despite the assurance he received in a team owner’s meeting. Speaking on the Actions Detrimental podcast, he said:

“The very first team owner meeting that I was ever in… I said, ‘Mr. Probst, are you sure that we have this car ready to race at all types of different racetracks? We’ve got a blank canvas here that we have an opportunity to build a car that can be great at all tracks. Are we sure we’ve got it right?’ [Probst said yes] I said, ‘OK, I believe you, I have no reason not to’.

“They just didn’t do enough testing. The car wasn’t ready. We had to delay it one year, we had the COVID thing — it was not thought out enough. … We didn’t have multiple racecars on the racetrack testing this car until two months before the very first race. And at that moment is when we all realized holy sh*t, you cannot pass. It was really, really bad.

“Now, we did some things. We were going to run 500 horsepower. That was the original plan is to run 500 horsepower in this thing. But it was so horrible that we got them talked into 670.”

Despite the setback, the 44-year-old driver believes the car can be fixed through collaboration. He added:

“We can fix this car. The teams can fix this car. We just got to get with the drivers, get in a room and figure out what do you fight? Why can’t you pass? And then come up with some remedies of how we can change this.”

Just recently, Hamlin called for an increase in the power output of the cars to at least 750 horsepower. He said on the SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:

“You’re coming off a couple of races of domination and what I hear on my end is — the racing and how are we going to make it better.

“No matter what we do, 20 years ago, we’re going to be talking about how to make the racing better. What we have to understand is that the parity is what is making it so hard to pass. It’s making it so hard to get near each other to crash which is what some fans are there to see, which is more action. It’s a tough problem. And the fans I talk to see say they want more horsepower, and I wish it was that easy.

“It is, technically, but it also isn’t right. Could we at least go back to the 750 horsepower, which is only 100 more than what we got now, which would at least be a step in the right direction to make it where… these cars are just so planted. I can’t tell you enough how much that’s the case, that they’re stuck to the racetrack.

“We have to unstick them somehow. Is it more horsepower, more tire fall off because I know we’re working towards that and Goodyear and NASCAR has made good progress there but it’s more about the competition side than anything. Late last year, it was the officiating, and it just goes in cycles where and what the focus is on.”