So Pemberton delved into the nitty-gritty of the COT’s pros and cons. The former NASCAR official said, “The wing was good for a number of reasons, and it was bad for a number of reasons. It was good for traffic, less weight. And they got blamed for cars getting upside down. One of the reasons is with the wing, it’s not a lot of drag. So when I turned sideways, the drag didn’t go up as fast as it did with a spoiler. So lift-off speeds were wrong. There was that part of it, and then some people weighed in that said stock cars don’t have wings. They don’t have wings. Yeah, that was part of it, I hate that because we put a lot of development in.”

Despite the regret involved with scrapping a high-effort enterprise, Robin Pemberton had to take the tough call eventually. He recalled his interaction with Mike Helton, former president of NASCAR. “I’ll never forget. Mike comes up for lunch one day, and he goes, Well, I gotta tell you. We need to get rid of the wing, like we just spent a year on it. Yeah, okay. Well, I will go work on it…What do you mean? Like, asap. It took my breath. Like if you got a month or six weeks, whatever, in like it came in a hurry, you know.” Eventually, the COT went out of business. Recently, Denny Hamlin referred to its flaws to highlight the Next-Gen’s defects.

Well, Pemberton chafed about the loss of the wing, but in the long run, it was a good call. While Dale Jr. brooded over the resolution of a crisis almost 13 years ago, he is also concerned with a crisis in the present day.

Urging the offender to take action

Fireworks broke out in New Hampshire last Sunday. More precisely, the fireworks of Joe Gibbs Racing’s in-house drama. On lap 110, Ty Gibbs would not leave room for Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, both playoff contenders. And Gibbs, who could not crack the postseason, fell prey to Hamlin’s aggression and spun out. Although no face-to-face encounter happened, there has been an online exchange of barbs. Hamlin called out JGR’s leadership to teach Gibbs a lesson, while the latter delivered a subtle jab. However, Dale Jr. pointed out how the first step needs to be taken by Ty. As he started the whole ordeal, he should step up.

What is more, if Ty Gibbs does not speak up, then JGR’s unity can be in jeopardy. “This is a big teaching moment for Ty, well beyond like next week and his racing career and all of that. like how they managed this little hiccup,” Dale Jr. said. “What happened on the racetrack? It sucks. He shouldn’t have raced him like he did. He got wrecked by his teammate, Denny. All that sucks…You go into the meeting. You talk about it. Ty should, I think, stand up and say, ‘I f*cked up. Should let y’all guys go. I don’t know what I was thinking. That was foolish of me. Won’t happen again going forward in these playoffs. You got my word. I’m gonna be a good teammate.’”

With things at a standstill at present, we can only wait and see what comes of the JGR fallout. Meanwhile, NASCAR could work on the Next-Gen like they did on the Car of Tomorrow.