Why Kyle Larson Credits Next-Gen Car and Not Drivers’ Skill for Current NASCAR Position

One of the characteristics of the Next-Gen era is that all teams have cars of the same quality. It has brought the competition a lot closer as the 2024 season is the first since 1982 in which six races have seen more than 40 lead changes.

However, all of last season’s final four have made it through to the round of 8 this year and Kyle Larson believes that the lack of new drivers in this stage of the playoffs is due to the car.

Before the Next-Gen car was introduced, there was a lot of scope for development. Teams that would run poorly in one race could look at the data and introduce significant upgrades in the following weeks which would massively improve their speed. 

That is not an option with the Next-Gen. Yes, there is scope for development and teams do introduce upgrades but they’re not nearly as significant as they used to be.

“I just feel like teams are very similar to how they were last year, just because there’s not really much developing in the cars.. or as much as there was. There’s always development within the teams; setups and what they’re finding here and there, but it’s probably a lot smaller than it used to be.”

“So I think that’s why you see teams being more consistently good year-to-year,” Larson said in a recent press conference.

Yung Money is one of last year’s final four drivers alongside Ryan Blaney, William Byron, and Christopher Bell to have made it into the round of 8. At least the championship round will see one new face this season as Joey Logano has booked his spot after winning last weekend’s race in Las Vegas.

Cup Series favorite wary of under-the-radar title contender

Yung Money is seen as the favorite to win the championship this season but he is not taking anything for granted. His competition comprises some of the best stock car racing drivers in the world today.

Some of them don’t have a lot of hype around them but are more than capable of beating the rest of the field to the championship. One such driver, as per Larson, is Christopher Bell.

“He’s not out talking about how good he’s doing, he’s just doing it. Him and his team are super strong. Yeah, I think they’ve been doing a great job over the last three years, or whatever it’s been. And two, I’ve raced with Christopher for so long, so I know how good he is,” the 2021 Cup Series champion added.

Bell has made it to the championship race twice in the last two seasons and is in a good points position to make it three out of three. The #20 driver is almost untouchable when he is in form and that could hurt Yung Money’s chances. That is of course if Bell finds that purple patch at this point in the season.