Former Stewart-Haas Racing never liked the NASCAR Next Gen car. He drove it for two seasons beginning in 2022 and couldn’t find himself growing attached to the advanced machinery till the day of his retirement in 2023. The first thought would be that his problem was with the short-track issues of the car, but it is rather a more selfish reason that backs his dislike.
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He revealed the same during an interview with Motorsports on NBC recently. He said that he was far more comfortable with the previous generation since he’d driven it for close to three decades.
The 2014 Cup Series champion had been able to have a clear advantage over young drivers who came up to the Cup Series and the Next Gen completely balanced the act out with its parity-inducing nature.
Harvick added, “It was a much different style and how you had to manage the car, manipulate the car, and what it took to make the car go fast was just backwards.”
“It was a lot of work. To be able to go to the simulator every week, sometimes twice a week, sit in team meetings, talk about the car, and understand the car. It was very different compared to everything else we had before.”
Needless to say, he couldn’t reach victory lane in the Next Gen as often as he did in the previous generation car. He scored two victories in his final two seasons (2022 and 2023) in the Cup Series.
Harvick had nine victories in his final two years (2020 and 2021) driving the sixth-generation car. His revelation wasn’t to say that there weren’t any other issues with the Next Gen car.
The short-track issues of the Next Gen car
Many drivers have been vocal about the need to fix short-track racing with the Next Gen car. Harvick has been one of them. He said at the end of the 2023 season that NASCAR would be making big changes to try and rectify the mistake. As he predicted, the promotion experimented with tires a lot this year.
He was also of the opinion that more horsepower is needed under the hoods of the Next Gen car. This was a take that fellow veteran Kyle Busch shared with him.
Rowdy said earlier this year, “I didn’t think we could make it worse, but by golly we did…for me anyways. Maybe it’s just because we don’t have it quite figured out like others do, but I cannot follow anybody in front of me whatsoever.”
“It doesn’t matter if I’m in the bottom lane, the middle lane, the top lane. If there is a car in front of me, I am terrible. Really bad.” Veterans not liking the new machinery presents a problem for an obvious reason. There might be actual issues with the car. Or maybe they just aren’t comfortable with not having an advantage despite their experience.
