Issues with the Next Gen car shouldn’t be a suprise to anyone
Uh-oh, Next Gen issues? When you roll out a new generation of race car and begin grouptesting at a variety of tracks, you know you’ll find issues that simply can’t be unearthed in the lab.
Tweaks, changes and maybe even full-blown do-overs are expected, though not desired. But when you throw in issues with the supply chain as well as a new wave of positive pandemic tests, there must be days when NASCAR’S R&D folks feel like Sisyphus pushing the Next Gen rock.
This quote from Martin Truex Jr., to Fox Sports, wasn’t quite enough to set off panic, but it didn’t relax anyone: “The car is not where it needs to be, and people are scrambling,” Truex said. “We’ve got to make some changes. We need to make it better so we can race with it, put on a show for the fans.”
Mark this down: Whatever the final product, they’ll never find a mechanical combo that pleases all constituencies — fans, drivers, owners, engineers, NASCAR, networks, etc.
START YOUR ENGINES: After holiday lull, the racing season will rev to life in January; some dates to remember:
TESTING, TESTING: NASCAR ‘Next Gen’ test at Daytona International Speedway next month open to the public
What, M&MS are melting away? That’s right, Kyle Busch will get one more season in the colorful M&m-adorned Toyotas before the candy’s parent company, Mars Inc., ends its 15-year run with Joe Gibbs Racing.
These things happen and happen often in business and sports-entertainment. The biggest news, frankly, is that it lasted 15 years, which is a lifetime in corporate sponsor
ships and practically a millennium in auto racing, where partnerships sometimes dissipate just as the ink dries.
Kyle took to social media to thank a longtime benefactor that “always accepted me for who I am.” There were times they should've received sainthood.