In recent times, NASCAR drivers and fans have been showing the Xfinity Series car a lot more love than the Cup Series Next Gen car. The latest of many to do so is the iconic Mark Martin. The former driver shared a post on X by Brian Keselowski about how good the Xfinity Series car is, and included a special message.
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Brian had written, “The only non-efi series left, old platform car, no significant body changes in 10 plus years. Decent tires that put rubber down at any temp. XFinity has been killing it for years.” Martin responded, “The @NASCAR_Xfinity cars are beautiful 
.”
Fans were largely in agreement with his opinion. One fan wrote, “The Xfinity car is the closest thing to the gen 4 since, well, the gen 4. It’s no surprise it puts on the best racing in Nascar.” The car being lauded was last seen racing at the Rockingham Speedway on Saturday. A fan who watched the event spelled out clearly why everyone was completely in love with it.
They wrote, “Today’s race reminds me of being a kid in the early 2000s. looks, sounds, and feels just like it. Not just being at Rockingham, that’s the icing on the cake, but because this is what the product looked like on TV, mostly everywhere, this is what NASCAR racing was meant to be.”
todays race reminds me of being a kid in the early 2000s. looks, sounds, and feels just like it. Not just being at Rockingham, that’s the icing on the cake, but because this is what the product looked like on TV mostly everywhere
this is what nascar racing was meant to be
— AJ♠️ (@TropTop24) April 19, 2025
Originality never goes unappreciated. It appears fans love what NASCAR was than it currently is. The experience at Rockingham led one fan to wish that the Cup Series field had traveled to the track instead of taking the Easter Break. “Great to see NASCAR back at Rockingham. But it’s too bad the cup cars would put on a snoozer here,” they said.
Judging the Xfinity Series car and the Next Gen car on such a historic track would have been quite entertaining. There are multiple issues with the Next Gen. From low horsepower to a faulty wheel mechanism, drivers have been pointing them all out over the years. Yet another fan who commented below Martin’s post believed that the solution for these problems was simple.
They said, “Absolutely. Give the Cup drivers these cars with a little more HP, done.” Many, including Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, do agree with this take. They have all been demanding that NASCAR add more power to the Next Gen car. However, the promotion has been reluctant to do so.
Hamlin’s comparison between the Xfinity Series and Next Gen cars
The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran was highly critical of NASCAR on a recent episode of Actions Detrimental. He claimed that the officials were nowhere close to fixing the actual problem with the Next Gen car. He also explained that the reason the Next Gen car is bad in traffic is that it has its nose lifted and its tail down.
In his words, “You get a front end that’s not on the ground. It’s in the air because we have to feed the underbody of the car. As soon as we get behind somebody, that thing just lifts right on up, and you’ve got no front downforce.” He added how the Xfinity Series car was starkly different from this.
A driver racing in second place could drive to the bumper of the leader in the Xfinity Series car and manipulate their position by taking away the rear downforce. This allowed better passing and competition between the drivers. On the Next Car, however, the downforce doesn’t work this way because of the platform on which the car is based.
Hamlin contended that it is feasible to make changes and that they ought to. It remains to be seen if the promotion will heed to the growing discontent in its premier series.
