TALLADEGA, Ala. — Despite another fantastic photo finish in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday (Oct. 6) evening, drivers and teams still find themselves more frustrated by challenges with the racing product and procedures presented by the Next Gen car.
“I didn’t even have fun today,” 33rd-place finisher Joey Logano said after his release from the infield care center, looking just as dejected as he sounded.
Often viewed as one of the top superspeedway racers, he was discouraged by the racing product.
“You can’t even do anything here,” he observed. “You get just stuck. You’re running four wide and it looks cool, but you’re running half-throttle. Then when you want to go and it’s time to go, everyone’s just stuck two wide.”
“It’s incredibly tough to race like that,” echoed Ryan Preece, who finished 35th. “I’d love to figure something out where we don’t have so much drag or whatnot to where we’re not just saving fuel trying to gain track position that way.”
While the Next Gen car has put on some incredible displays at the 1.5-mile tracks, racing just about everywhere else has suffered in the eyes of fans and drivers. A lackluster Bristol race in September resulted in an outcry for an overhaul from many fans, displeased with the short track product.
“I thought Bristol was an awesome race and the fans said it was a terrible race,” said Christopher Bell after finishing sixth. “Inside the car, this one feels like a terrible race, but I’m sure the fans are going to say it was a great race.”
“I’ve never really thought this style of racing was fun, but I will say that it is infuriating truthfully,” Chase Briscoe shared. “You can’t do anything. You’re just stuck.”
Briscoe finished 30th, 32 points below the cut line. His crew chief, Richard Boswell, also added to the conversation.
“It sucks, right?” Boswell said. “You race around four wide at barely faster than qualifying speed. That’s not drafting at Talladega, that’s riding around at Talladega. I don’t know how we fix that.”
Meanwhile, Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, did have an idea.
“I am a proponent of making the stage lengths the length of the fuel tank,” he said. “In Gen 6 racing, when you came to these kinds of tracks and watched it, there was a lot of nuanced driver talent on display … I mean you could see greatness in that.
“Gen 7 speedway racing, I just don’t see any greatness.”
The superspeedway product has provided a source of frustration in all three years of the Next Gen car. Another concern that has resurfaced in the playoffs revolves around the damaged vehicle policy (DVP).
At Kansas, Josh Berry was towed to the infield after a spin with no wall contact led to four flat-spotted tires. Because he was unable to drive back to pit road, Berry was forced to exit the race early for not meeting the damaged vehicle policy.
“All I know is that all those cars in turn 3 better not get towed to pit road, buddy, because that would be breaking the damaged vehicle policy,” an animated Berry said outside of the infield care center. “F**king No. 42 car is over there doing burnouts, slinging rubber all over the safety workers trying to get going. if you have four flat tires, you’ve got to get towed to pit road, you’re done, right?”
“I feel like that whole process could for sure be better,” Briscoe added. “I know that it will get better as we get more experience with it.”
But wait, there’s more.
The red flag flew for cleanup from the massive 28-car pileup. However, the yellow waved again while cars still sat stuck on the apron and the pace car remained motionless.
“It was early. I was surprised when we took back off. There were still five or six cars out there,” said Bell. “In my opinion, if you’re going to red flag the race, you should red flag it until we’re ready to go.”
Race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also noted the unusual procedure, even though it didn’t affect his race or points scenario.
“I thought it was odd that they turned the yellow light on and let some of those cars get back to pit road and start working on them as we’re just sitting on the backstretch.”
After the race, NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer addressed the DVP and the unusual red flag procedure.
“We’re going to do our absolute best to clean that up and not be in it, but that’s just part of sports,” Sawyer said about officiating becoming a part of the storylines once again. “We’ve got to continue to learn, but there’s just a lot of really positives about this car, so we’ve got to make sure we continue to capture that and learn from the things we need to work on.”
About the author
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
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Sawyer says there’s a lot of really positives about that car. Hey Caleb, there’s a huge story there if you want to pursue it. The fans don’t like how it doesn’t races, the drivers, crew chiefs, engineers. Talk off the record with them. Nascar are idiots, the car is a piece of crap and Ben and John are clueless as what they need to do. But the others I mentioned do. Have a chat with Chad, all the good ones. Look at HP. You can grow lots bigger than frontstretch if you start inquiring and getting answers. Red flag yellow flag, you know they are clueless.
They are saying what I have been saying for years… It is like driving in a traffic jam! How much “fun” is that?
To paraphrase the comments of the brain trust of NA$CAR… Tis a tale told by an idiot, full of lies and deceit, signifying nothing
i drive daily in the afternoon in pack traffic 4 or 5 lanes wide going top speed of 30. i hate it…… when i saw them racing 4 wide yesterday afternoon i cringed.
You’re in a lane and it starts to speed up and you pass two cars and then slow again. NA$CAR says that is two green flag passes. The line next to you speeds up and three cars pass you. NA$CAR says that is three green flag passes. Imagine that for 500 miles! Imagine that for 40 cars! That is Toronto to Windsor and back.
you made me laugh this afternoon. i’m about to hit the i-285 speedway to roll slower than a turtle to take 2 hrs to go 24 miles. man i hate traffic.
Ground effects..aero suck. Get the cars up off the ground and open the grills
Year after year everyone talks about the aero and downforce but they focus on other things.
I concur with the other comments. The drivers, crews, engineers and fans don’t like the car. Get rid of the diffuser and flat bottom. Put the old tires/wheels on the cars so they can drive them back to the pits. NASCAR is getting dumber every day.
Every car has a unique way of sucking. The gen 4 was terrible on the superspeedways- I don’t think anyone wants to go back to the single-file breakaway years. Gen 6 was good on superspeedways but terrible on the intermediates. It’s almost like one car can’t be made to run every type of track. If NASCAR were serious about reducing the costs for the teams they would stop messing around and just implement a spending cap. Trying to make the car cheaper clearly isn’t working.
can’t we make a car from the different gen parts to get a car that actually works? or kind of like a chinese menu, pick one part of gen 5 and add one part of gen 6 to come up with a for a particular track on any given weekend. just pick the parts from all the generations of the cars that will give a good product on the track. oh yeah then goodyear will mess things up with their choice of tire for any given weekend as well.
Johnny Cash’s “One Piece At A Time” comes to mind! haha :-)
Four wide for 20 laps looked cool but it had to be frustrating for the drivers. You’re stuck in the pack and nothing changes lap after lap.
As Kyle(?) was explaining the rule for wrecked cars, they were determined to tow Briscoe, meanwhile, the next shot showed a tow truck pushing the 6 or the 9. They need to decide what the rule is and then enforce it for everyone. I don’t know if Inner-liners will work in a radial, but maybe that’s an option. The spring boost is a good idea.
Then there’s the penalties. Ben Rhodes on Saturday for ‘jumping the start’. Did he though? Let’s see the speed that Zilisch and Rhodes were running. Ben gave it back (before the start finish i beleive) and backed off so much the high line jammed up.
The last thing for me is the Chase. Most of the Chase drivers were near the front. If you can’t win, then 2nd or 5th will get you to the next cutoff. Why bother racing for the win and putting yourself at risk. GWC and the only person that made a move for the pack was Busch. No one even tried to help. I’ve never see that before at the super speedways. Everyone settled for where they were unless they were at the front. The chase has ruined the later part of the season.
Everyone else hates it, but NA$CAR loves it! They get a year’s worth of crash highlights for the marketing dept out of each Daytona/Talladega race, and the bloodthirsty demolition derby “fans” show up in droves to watch them!
NA$CAR is in the business of selling “racing”, but racing isn’t what NA$CAR cares about.
It is what it is, ’cause it sure ain’t what it was. This isn’t racing. Oh well, the show must go on.