{"id":63150,"date":"2025-08-12T04:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63150\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T04:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T04:54:07","slug":"kyle-petty-defends-current-nascar-product-calls-out-dale-earnhardt-jr-for-unwarranted-criticism-of-next-gen-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/63150\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Petty defends current NASCAR product, calls out Dale Earnhardt Jr. for ‘unwarranted’ criticism of Next Gen car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, current and former drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticized the Next Gen car. Kyle Petty thought the criticism was unwarranted, he said on the Performance Racing Network<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Petty, the former NASCAR<\/a> driver, specifically took issue with Earnhardt, who called the Next Gen car a \u201csports car<\/a>\u201d and not a \u201cNASCAR stock car.\u201d Petty said that NASCAR hasn\u2019t been racing stock cars \u201csince about 1958.\u201d He praised the Next Gen car, saying it is producing \u201cspectacular stuff on the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one of our prominent members of the NASCAR community, Dale Jr., criticize the Next Gen car the other day. I don\u2019t think that criticism is deserved in a lot of ways,\u201d Petty said. \u201cWe have not raced stock cars since about 1958. We don\u2019t race stock cars, we race NASCARs. This is the NASCAR car that we have today. People complained in the 70s when they went to tubular chassis. They complained when we went to radial tires. They\u2019ve complained all along as the progression of the cars. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were still racing cars with carburetors when you couldn\u2019t go to your local auto parts store and buy a carburetor. It was an antiquated car that we were racing and people seemed to want to have that antiquated car. This car jumped leap years ahead. We have to adjust to it. This is the racing we have. We have to embrace it, enjoy it, we\u2019re seeing some spectacular stuff on the racetrack and I think it\u2019s only going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle Petty, Dale Earnhardt Jr. share differing opinions on NASCAR\u2019s Next Gen car<\/p>\n

Petty\u2019s opinion is far different than many fans and drivers in the garage, who have mixed feelings about the Next Gen car now in season four since its arrival. Its performance on short tracks and road courses has been panned, though it generally produces entertaining racing on intermediate tracks.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International left many fans frustrated. It led to Hamlin comparing the fan dislike of the Next Gen car to that of the original Car of Tomorrow with the wing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we have a fundamental car problem. It is no doubt a problem. Everyone that has ever driven it has said it\u2019s a problem,\u201d Hamlin said<\/a> on Monday\u2019s\u00a0Actions Detrimental<\/a>\u00a0podcast. \u201cI believe that the Next Gen car is reaching hate levels of the COT (Car of Tomorrow) with the wing. From fans \u2014 I think they\u2019re starting to dislike this car as much as the drivers that have to drive it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Earnhardt is disappointed by the overall product. He said the following after last Sunday\u2019s race at Iowa Speedway, prior to the race at Watkins Glen. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed that we have races like this, and then it\u2019s frustrating to watch and you know what the drivers are struggling with when it comes to aero. We\u2019re worried about being modern and having a racecar that all the kids are going to love with cool diffusers and mag wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, current and former drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticized the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-63150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}