Denny Hamlin doesn’t think NASCAR tested Next Gen car enough

In diagnosing the issues with the Next Gen car, Denny Hamlin believes you have to go back to the beginning when the car was first introduced. Hamlin became a team owner in 2020 when he formed 23XI Racing alongside Michael Jordan.

He said on Monday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast that at the very first team owner meeting he attended, he raised a question to John Probst, NASCAR senior vice president of racing development. Hamlin wanted to know if the Next Gen car was ready to race at different types of racetracks.

“The very first team owner meeting that I was ever in,” Hamlin said. “… 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.’”

NASCAR tested the Gen-7 car and deemed it ready for competition ahead of the 2022 season. But Hamlin says they didn’t do enough. Now nine races into year four of the car, it still fails to produce quality racing on short tracks, as seen this past weekend at Bristol.

“They just didn’t do enough testing,” Hamlin said. “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.”

Sunday’s race at Bristol saw the first 200 plus lap run in the stage racing era and the first since Dover in September 2016, per Stephen Stumpf of Frontstretch. Passing was hard to come by. Tire wear was non-existent. Kyle Larson led 411-of-500 laps and cruised to the checkered flag.

Denny Hamlin: ‘We can fix this car’

Speaking on “The Teardown” podcast, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic blasted the Food City 500. He said there will be fewer short track races if what happened on Sunday happens again.

“I think this was a horrible race,” Gluck said. “Of course, Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels, Jeff Gordon are going to say this was better than last year. … They like this style of racing. To me, this was pathetic. This was absolutely pathetic.

“We talked about the Next Gen car and how it’s ruined short track racing in NASCAR. What can you say? You looked at the stands today and you’re like, ‘Man, I hope it’s not going to be a good race because a lot of people are going to miss it.’ Can you blame them for not showing up after what we saw today? That was terrible.”

Not all hope is lost, according to Hamlin. The Next Gen car can be fixed; it will require some collaboration between drivers and NASCAR.

“We can fix this car. The teams can fix this car,” Hamlin said. “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.”

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