TALLADEGA, Ala. — Despite another fantastic photo finish in the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday (Oct. 6) evening, drivers and teams still find themselves more frustrated by challenges with the racing product and procedures presented by the Next Gen car.
“I didn’t even have fun today,” 33rd-place finisher Joey Logano said after his release from the infield care center, looking just as dejected as he sounded.
Often viewed as one of the top superspeedway racers, he was discouraged by the racing product.
“You can’t even do anything here,” he observed. “You get just stuck. You’re running four wide and it looks cool, but you’re running half-throttle. Then when you want to go and it’s time to go, everyone’s just stuck two wide.”
“It’s incredibly tough to race like that,” echoed Ryan Preece, who finished 35th. “I’d love to figure something out where we don’t have so much drag or whatnot to where we’re not just saving fuel trying to gain track position that way.”
While the Next Gen car has put on some incredible displays at the 1.5-mile tracks, racing just about everywhere else has suffered in the eyes of fans and drivers. A lackluster Bristol race in September resulted in an outcry for an overhaul from many fans, displeased with the short track product.
“I thought Bristol was an awesome race and the fans said it was a terrible race,” said Christopher Bell after finishing sixth. “Inside the car, this one feels like a terrible race, but I’m sure the fans are going to say it was a great race.”
“I’ve never really thought this style of racing was fun, but I will say that it is infuriating truthfully,” Chase Briscoe shared. “You can’t do anything. You’re just stuck.”
Briscoe finished 30th, 32 points below the cut line. His crew chief, Richard Boswell, also added to the conversation.
“It sucks, right?” Boswell said. “You race around four wide at barely faster than qualifying speed. That’s not drafting at Talladega, that’s riding around at Talladega. I don’t know how we fix that.”
Meanwhile, Chris Gabehart, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, did have an idea.
“I am a proponent of making the stage lengths the length of the fuel tank,” he said. “In Gen 6 racing, when you came to these kinds of tracks and watched it, there was a lot of nuanced driver talent on display ……
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