One of the biggest ongoing criticisms of the NASCAR Next Gen car is that it’s no longer a traditional “stock car.” From Kevin Harvick to Denny Hamlin, many notable personalities have joined fans in this contention. In response, former driver Kenny Wallace has explained why he believes the Next Gen is still a stock car.
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The origin of the term “stock car” is synonymous with NASCAR’s history. In the early days, the race cars were essentially stock production vehicles, the same models sold in dealerships across America. Over time, NASCAR evolved, as teams and manufacturers began building engines, chassis, and other components specifically for competition. That evolution reached its peak with the Next Gen car, which shares virtually nothing with regular road cars, a change that has been hard for traditional fans to accept.
Wallace, however, wants fans to understand that there’s a reason why huge companies still spend the big bucks to use NASCAR as a testing ground.
“They scream, ‘NASCAR needs to get back to a stock car. Our cars are not stock cars anymore.’ Well, the first thing I would say to you is that’s false. They are stock cars. And here’s why,” Wallace began explaining on his YouTube channel.
“Because Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, and now Dodge, Stellantis, whatever the hell you want to call it, they spend millions of dollars a year because the NASCAR stock car relates right now to the car on the streets.” He used the example of his wife’s new 2025 Chevrolet Suburban to back his case. The car, he says, has independent suspension all around it, just like the Next Gen does.
It is also fuel-injected and possesses similar lower and upper A-Frames. The removal of the carburetor from the Next Gen was one of the biggest factors that fans had issues with. But Wallace defended the promotion’s decision at this front. He declared, “We can’t go back to 1970, okay? We can’t because that’s not the way they build cars anymore.”
Kyle Petty’s adamant opinion about the Next Gen car
Another big defender of NASCAR’s Next Gen car is Kyle Petty. After Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s criticism of the car not being stock earlier this year, Petty hit back with a strong rebuttal. He said that the last time NASCAR raced stock cars was in 1958 and explained that things just don’t work the same way in this day and age.
Petty detailed, “It was an antiquated car that we were racing, and people seemed to want to have the antiquated car. This car jumped leap years ahead … We have to adjust to it. This is the racing that we have. Embrace it. Enjoy it. We are seeing some spectacular stuff on the race track. I think it’s only going to get better.”
Racecar innovation was carried out by the teams themselves back in the day. But now, NASCAR plays a far more proactive role. He believes that the current car is a result of that character. He also underlined that the car will go through more evolutions over time. In mean time, he doesn’t appreciate the approach of criticising positive developments.
