Jeff Gordon on Next Gen Car: “Are We Actually Able to Get Closer to One Another?”

Ever since its delayed introduction at the start of last season, the Next Gen car has held a pretty polarizing place in NASCAR. There are those who believe this car is a step backward in many ways. Then there are those who feel the car is a step in the right direction. And then there are those like Jeff Gordon, who, while being aware of the big gains the car has brought to the Cup Series, is also not ignorant about the areas that it needs improvement.

In a recent interview, Gordon opened up on his thoughts about the Next Gen car. The NASCAR Hall of Famer’s opinion on the current generation of racecars was from a variety of standpoints, but it was mainly from a competition perspective and from a business perspective with a bittersweet tone.

Jeff Gordon thinks Next Gen is ‘on the edge’, praises the improvements

Speaking about the Next Gen car, Jeff Gordon deemed it as a car that is “on the edge.” He explained, “The drivers are really having to pay attention and be super focused.” Gordon backed his point by referring to the incidents Kyle Larson and William Byron had in Texas and Kansas respectively.

“I think a lot of that is the tires and lack of side force but otherwise, I really like the car,” he added.

Gordon further described, “I think they’ve made some great improvements with the crush zones, some of the safety features have been far improved. We see the hit that Ryan Blaney had, you see the hit that Kyle Busch had this past weekend. I’m hearing a lot better results from that standpoint.”

“From a business standpoint, we’re still making up for year 1 of changing over all the parts and pieces and understanding the lifespan that a lot of these parts have.”

What does Gordon want to see from the Next Gen car?

What Jeff Gordon wants to see from the Next Gen car is perhaps one of the few things that the car’s critics and admirers can all agree on. “I just want to see the best racing possible,” Gordon claimed, as he added that the car has finally started to “come into its own.” 

He pointed to the big discussion of the underwing and the diffuser as he pointed to what happened at Daytona and the issue of air being funneled under the car. Gordon continued, “Are we actually able to get closer to one another and have that kind of side-by-side racing and the passes that we want to see?”

Having said that, the 4x Cup champion claimed the Next Gen car “changed the game” when it comes to aspects of races such as the importance of pit crews, strategy, track position, and just how important it is to be fast from the get-go and qualify well. The reason for that, to be fast from the start, as per Gordon,  was because in the Next Gen car, passing at a lot of tracks is “very, very challenging,” which more or less sums it up.

It is a racecar that has improved many things but the racing.