NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer has responded to the criticism surrounding the Next Gen car’s performance on short tracks. This follows comments from a number of drivers and stakeholders, including Denny Hamlin, who admitted the car “wasn’t ready.”
The 2025 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday saw fans disappointed with the short track package from the sport. Kyle Larson showed extreme dominance during the race, leading 411 laps of the 500-lap campaign. While it was an amazing feat from the talented driver, many fans labelled the race processional, with it boasting only four lead changes and three cautions.
The Next Gen car, beginning life in 2022, has come under plenty of scrutiny, especially in regard to smaller oval tracks. With only 670 horsepower, the car allows for limited overtaking opportunities for its drivers.
“What we have to understand is that the parity is what is making it so hard to pass,” Hamlin said to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “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.”
He continued: “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.”
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
In response to this heavy criticism, Sawyer addressed this, again on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“If you look at our product that we put on the racetrack, we’re constantly looking at that and what we can do to improve it,” he said. “I don’t want our fans to lose sight that we have great racing at our superspeedways. We have great racing at our intermediate tracks.
“And we have seen great racing at our short tracks and road courses. We will continue to look at our short track package. We’ve worked closely — the industry that is, our drivers, our teams, our NASCAR folks — work closely with the folks at Goodyear and continue to try to get that fall-off that we’re looking for on the short tracks.”
He adds that NASCAR is taking this seriously.
“We’re not going to sleep on this. We’re going to go to work and continue to see what adjustments and changes needs to be made. I think that’s a real credit to the industry.
“Over 77 years of NASCAR racing and that’s how long we’ve been in business. There’s been an evolution of changes throughout times with the cars if you just go back in different eras. … We’ll continue to look at that and I want our fans to have a voice on that.
“They can rest assure that are we going to continue to look at that and see what changes that we need to make to continue having the best racing in the world.”
NASCAR is working hard with its stakeholders to find solutions to these issues.
“We’re all in this together, and we all want the same thing. We all want the best product and the best racing on the racetrack, and if someone has an idea, we’re all ears.”
