The noise surrounding the NASCAR Cup Series’ Next Gen cars is getting louder by the day as fans and drivers continue to speak out against the various issues plaguing this generation of cars, hampering races in the process.

Denny Hamlin, who has not been coy in his criticism of the cars, has once again been highly critical, this time in response to Sunday’s Go Bowling At The Glen, won with ease by road course maestro Shane van Gisbergen.

The 44-year-old, who has four wins this season in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, believes NASCAR has “a fundamental car problem,” even claiming the issues are so severe the Series is reaching levels of frustration not seen since the Gen 5 “Car of Tomorrow.”

“Everyone that has ever driven it has said it’s a problem,” Hamlin claimed on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “I believe that the Next Gen car is reaching hate levels of the COT with the wing. From fans, and just, I think they’re starting to dislike this car as much as the drivers that have to drive it.”

Hamlin recalled how the COT, which was used between 2007 and 2012, represented “a step back in the performance of race-ability versus the Gen 4 car that I started with,” specifically citing how tough they were to pass.

“We’ve just steadily progressed our way back and back and back and back and taken horsepower away more and more and more,” Hamlin said. “These are decisions that get made from beyond our offices…10th floor decisions, and let’s just say us drivers are on the third floor.

“I hate to say it. No business is immune to bad decisions. I think that the NASCAR business has made some horrible decisions over the last given amount of time, and eventually, it catches up.

“You can’t just say, ‘This is the direction I wanna go.’ ‘Well, why?’ ‘Well, this is the direction I wanna go,’ and not eventually have to pay for that. You’re going to have to pay for your bad decisions at some point. And this could be said for lots of things that have happened in those offices. We’ll just see how it goes.”

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NASCAR has been toying with the idea of upping the horsepower available in the Next Gen cars, even conducting a test at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. Unfortunately, it appears this test’s outcomes weren’t necessarily overly positive, with Rick Ware Racing competition director Tommy Baldwin revealing on the Door Bumper Clear podcast that, “They did try some stuff at New Hampshire couple of weeks ago in a test and they were surprised on some things that happened.”

Asked whether or not these ‘surprises’ were positive, he replied, “I don’t think it was in a good way, which is a surprise to me because I’ve said before, ‘100 horsepower would make a difference,’ and I don’t think it made much of a difference to move the needle.”

Despite these concerns and criticism from the likes of Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr., not all are so downbeat on the Next Gen cars. Recently, Kyle Petty claimed that complaints about cars have been going on for over four decades, adding, “This is the racing we have. We have to embrace it, enjoy it, we’re seeing some spectacular stuff on the racetrack, and I think it’s only going to get better.”