{"id":151640,"date":"2025-09-12T14:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/151640\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T14:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:32:15","slug":"veteran-crew-chief-unveils-radical-fix-to-save-nascars-next-gen-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/151640\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Crew Chief Unveils Radical Fix to Save NASCAR\u2019s Next Gen Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, recently admitted that increasing the horsepower of the Next Gen is now \u201con the table,\u201d and they are actively talking with engine builders about bumping up power from the current 670 HP package. Meanwhile, whispers among drivers and crew chiefs suggest that the car\u2019s woes go deeper than just power. Chris Gabehart of Joe Gibbs Racing pointed out that the car has a horsepower-to-grip ratio imbalance; in other words, there is too much grip for the amount of power, making passing in close racing harder than it should be. And now, in parallel, one NASCAR veteran crew chief has given the problem a whole angle.<\/p>\n

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The Gen-7 NASCAR car was supposed to be the shiny future of short-track racing, but instead, it\u2019s turned into a headache. The horsepower is capped so low that the cars feel neutered, and crashes have shown the underbody can behave like a parachute in all the wrong ways. And with blown tires, visibility quirks, and an aero package that rewards whoever gets clean at first, you\u2019ve got a car that is fast on paper but frustrating on the track. And NASCAR veteran crew chief Rodney Childers sounds off on it.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Kevin Harvick\u2019s Happy Hour podcast<\/a>, Childers pinpointed exactly what needs to change: \u201cYeah, I mean, you can always kind of pinpoint to the underbody may be causing some of this stuff in traffic. Um, I still think the tires are too wide. You know, I think you could narrow up the wheel from the inside. You know, leave the outside of the wheel where it\u2019s at, the face of the wheel, and just bring the inside of the wheel outboard basically and narrow up the tires a couple inches.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So essentially, NASCAR gave the Next Gen a sealed floor and a diffuser, basically making the car act like a giant vacuum cleaner. The car works well in clean air, but once you\u2019re behind another car, the aero balance changes, and suddenly it feels like you\u2019re skating. Then there are the 18-inch wheels with fat 12-inch wide tires. They look cool and grip well, but that huge contact patch actually makes traffic worse. But don\u2019t forget the price tag attached to all of this.<\/p>\n

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Rodney Childers<\/a>\u00a0added, \u201cThat\u2019s how I have felt from the get-go. You know, it\u2019s all about what\u2019s connecting the car to the track that\u2019s going to make the most difference. Whether you\u2019re, you know, whether you\u2019re on a go-kart, whether you\u2019re in a late model, whether it\u2019s a Cup car, that\u2019s really what\u2019s going to make the most difference. So, and you know, it\u2019s hard to throw away a bunch of race cars. It\u2019s hard to throw away a bunch of bodies, a bunch of floors that cost a lot of money\u2026And, you know, I think it would be worth trying. You know, it would cost a lot of money from Goodyear\u2019s standpoint to redo molds and do all that stuff, but, you know, we have to do what\u2019s right for the sport, and it would be worth looking into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tire sets alone can run about $2,400. Flows, diffusers, and underbody panels aren\u2019t cheap either, and since they are spec parts, any redesign means remodeling and re-manufacturing for the entire field. Goodyear and NASCAR can fix it, sure, but wallets are going to feel it first. Goodyear and NASCAR are unstoppable. With the Cup garage heading to Bristol for the night race this weekend, the organization has opted to sponsor right-side softer tires. Goodyear\u2019s strategy seems to be that they are choosing to go more aggressive on short tracks, and Dale Jr. is all for it<\/a>. However, tire wear is inevitable, and as Rodney Childers points out, the issue with the Next-Gen car is that it has eyes set on higher goals.<\/p>\n

Rodney Childers eyes a NASCAR comeback amid Next-Gen car struggles<\/p>\n

Veteran NASCAR crew chief Rodney Childers isn\u2019t one to stay on the sidelines for long, and now he is sounding more fired up than ever. The 49-year-old opened up about his recent hiatus and his burning desire to return to the pit box: \u201cI just want to smash them, I really do. It\u2019s put me in a situation where I just want to prove a point. Over time, I had accumulated some things. As you know, I like going and running UTVs and doing different things. Over this time, I\u2019ve got rid of every distraction that I have. I have no more distractions. The only distractions I have are a family and kids, and maybe going to a cross-country meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Childers and Kevin Harvick<\/a> formed one of the sport\u2019s most formidable duos at Stewart-Haas Racing<\/a>, winning the 2014 Cup Series Championship together. But after SHR closed its doors in 2024, Rodney made a brief move to Spire Motorsports to lead Justin Haley\u2019s No. 7 team for the 2025 season. The fit, however, was far from perfect. After just nine races and a strained team dynamic, Rodney was released. Now at 49, he says he has never been more focused: \u201cWhenever this next opportunity comes about, it\u2019s going to be 24\/7. I\u2019m not going to lay down. I\u2019ll be the first one there and the last one to leave. We\u2019ll see what happens from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Childers made it clear that when the next opportunity comes knocking, he is not just showing up; he is locking in. During his brief time with Spire, the results were underwhelming. Haley notched just one top 10 finish at Homestead-Miami, while teammate Carson Hocevar<\/a> snagged a runner-up finish in Atlanta. After Rodney\u2019s departure, Spire Motorsport<\/a>\u2019s competition director Ryan Sparks took over as crew chief. Since then, the No. 7 team has managed just one top-five and two top-10 finishes across 28 races, not exactly a seismic turnaround. As the 2025 season winds down, one thing is crystal clear: Rodney Childers isn\u2019t done. In fact, he might just be getting started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, recently admitted that increasing the horsepower of the Next Gen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[20927,2967,93370,1457,1449,26746,38234,6674,1458,425,1451,1465,1452,1467,1463,1454,1453,99,2952,10527,1464,6034,1435],"class_list":["post-151640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-20927","tag-2967","tag-3er","tag-am","tag-der","tag-fahrern","tag-gibbens","tag-mai","tag-motorradrennbahn","tag-nascar","tag-nascars","tag-nur","tag-pokal","tag-quer","tag-redaktionelle","tag-rennen","tag-serie","tag-sports","tag-stadt","tag-und","tag-verwendung","tag-wahrend","tag-x0x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}