NASCAR’s Next Gen car brought to the sport a host of technical and safety advancements in 2022. What it also brought is a level of parity that has resulted in cars being near duplicates of each other. The idea behind this was a level playing field to make way for fair competition. But has that motive and result been good for the sport? NASCAR veteran Kyle Petty doesn’t believe so.
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Speaking on the podcast “Out of the Groove”, he made a case on why parity was preventing the creation of superstars in racing. Bowing his hat to the likes of Dale Earnhardt Sr., he noted that the absence of such dominant drivers today has resulted in contenders not having a goal to chase. “Right now, I measure myself against everybody. And everybody’s the same,” he vented.
While the biggest reason for parity is the Next Gen car, it’s in no way a faulty piece of machinery. Remembering the same, Petty continued to note that NASCAR has to take its product and find a way to nullify its disadvantages, which includes hard passing in short-track races. “I can’t say that it’s all the car,” he clarified. “I can’t say that it’s all the tracks. I can’t say that it’s all the rules.
“I can’t say that it’s all one thing. I think you have to break it down. We didn’t get here overnight. We’re not gonna get away from this overnight.” Continuing to touch upon the number of victories that drivers like Denny Hamlin (54) and Kyle Busch (63) have secured in their careers, he expressed doubt on the potential of current youngsters to reach such marks.
NASCAR has great drivers but not superstar drivers, says Kyle Petty
Since stepping into the 21st century, only Kyle Larson and Jimmie Johnson have posted double-digit victories in a NASCAR season. No driver has managed it as of yet in the Next Gen car. When winning multiple races becomes such a hard issue to tackle, the possibility of superstars coming up turns that much harder. And for the sake of the sport’s popularity and global appeal, there is a need for superstars.
Kyle Petty says of this, “They are great race car drivers. But we don’t have superstar race car drivers, we just don’t. And we’ve not had a superstar racecar driver in a long time in this sport, the way I look at it. Somebody who just transcends the sport and can go do other things, away from the sport, that brings eyes to the sport. I just don’t see that.”
The former racer’s words make one wonder if NASCAR will ever see a driver being as celebrated as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr, and Jimmie Johnson were. End of the day it all comes down to the number of times a contender can find the victory lane. If deepening the divide between cars is what will allow it, maybe NASCAR ought to consider doing just that.
