NASCAR needs to address drivers’ safety concerns. Now.

With the playoffs firmly underway, it’s the business end of the NASCAR season, bringing plenty of tension to the sport’s protagonists. But this past weekend, as Chase Elliott won at Talladega Superspeedway, drivers’ disquiet that has bubbled beneath the surface for most of the season came to a head: questioning the safety of the Next Gen car.

Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman are missing from the grid with concussions suffered in the Next Gen car, Cody Ware confirmed Tuesday that he’ll skip the Charlotte Roval because of the broken foot he endured in the Next Gen. Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick have been vocal in their criticisms of NASCAR’s approach to safety this season. On Saturday, Elliott said he felt safety in the series was going “backward.”

With so many opinions being exchanged on what is the biggest topic in any motorsport, ESPN turned to Ryan McGee and Marty Smith for their takes on driver safety in NASCAR.

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Smith: It’s really obvious when you hear champion-level, first-ballot Hall of Fame-level drivers voicing the concern that they are. Hamlin was extremely vocal at Talladega that the racecar is not as safe as it should be, and that drivers have told that to NASCAR time and again. According to Hamlin, NASCAR wanted the Next Gen car on the racetrack at all costs, and then he repeated himself: at all costs. I’ve had conversations with drivers, this is something that they are very concerned about, and they are calling for change. I would expect NASCAR will listen to them, and they better listen to them.

McGee: And I think that’s the difference now versus not that long ago, and certainly not when you and I first started covering the sport, is that they’re going to listen. You and I have lived through multiple generations of racecars now, and there have been complaints before, and a lot of times the response was, “Well, this is what you got. Put your people to work.” I really think now the difference is that NASCAR President Steve Phelps talks with drivers all the time. It had…