The NASCAR Next Gen car has been a massive step forward in terms of driver safety and engineering. But the last three seasons have proven that it has a lot to make up for on the performance front. One of its most glaring faults became apparent during the qualifying session at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend. It led the iconic Mark Martin to raise a voice against the car.
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Media member Bozi Tatarevic shared the qualifying times of the various car types that raced at COTA on his X handle. The Xfinity Series car took 1:37.26 seconds, while the Cup Series car took 1:38.08 seconds. It came off as a surprising fact that the Xfinity Series car was faster than the supposedly superior Next Gen car.
Veteran spotter Freddie Kraft responded to this statistic and wrote, “I want to jump on the bandwagon and complain that the Xfinity cars are still faster than the Cup cars. But I’m afraid that it would result in them finding a way to slow them down instead of what we all really want to see.” Martin acknowledged this fear and simply wrote, “Preach.”
Preach https://t.co/UfQDKhgP9n
— Mark Martin (@markmartin) March 4, 2025
Fans rallied beneath the words of Kraft and Martin to throw punches at the abnormality. One follower couldn’t grasp how the Xfinity Series car, which was introduced in 2011, has been consistently good over the years, while the Cup Series car has failed twice now. They said, “Look at everything you did right there and build off of it, but they don’t seem to do that.”
Another asked a question that has been on the minds of many. It went, “Someone make it make sense. If Cup Cars are supposed to be so much safer and even, why is it they don’t change the Xfinity cars to be like them as well? Do they not care as much about their safety or fairness?” That’s something NASCAR would likely not have an acceptable answer for.
The idea that the Xfinity Series races on Saturday are more interesting to watch than their superior counterparts on Sunday has taken a stronghold in recent years. A comment shined a light on this by writing, “Man, that Xfinity car is so fun to watch race. Most of the time, I enjoy the Saturday race more than Sunday. I know I’m not the only one!”
NASCAR’s strategy to make the Next Gen car safe was to reduce the horsepower under its hood. But reducing the speed at which cars race has had many adverse effects.
A fan added, “A big reason the cup racing is so bad, they’re so slow and easy to drive. They need to speed them up and give them boys a handful to handle, the racing would be so much better!”
During the Race Industry Week in December, NASCAR president Steve Phelps revealed that new manufacturers could be making their way into the Xfinity Series. However, he did not mention that huge changes were going to be made to the car in the near future. It appears that the promotion will be saving all the experimentation for the Next Gen car.
