Kyle Larson’s crew chief has taken a definitive stance against the growing criticism of the sport’s Next Gen (Gen-7) car. Amidst a heated debate featuring influential voices like Chris Gabehart, and Ryan Bergenty, Cliff Daniels’ defense of the Next Gen car centers around its potential for future growth.
Daniels’ collaboration with Larson has yielded an astonishing 21 race victories and 12 pole awards, including five of each in the current season. Daniels turned to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio to address the Next Gen car’s dynamics and respond to criticism that has surrounded the design.
Daniels elaborated on the aerodynamic differences between the vehicles, noting that the old and Xfinity cars allowed a trailing car to affect the leading car’s aerodynamics by changing its nose-down and back-up dynamics.
In contrast, the Gen-7 car (G7) operates under a different aerodynamic scheme where the trailing car cannot effectively manipulate the air to influence the leading car’s bumper.
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“Chew on this. Old car and current Xfinity, the trailing car can move the leading car with air. Nose down and back up. G7 [Gen-7] racing is nose up and back down and trailing car cannot scoop or pack air towards the leading car bumper,” Daniels explained (below). This change has a substantial impact on racing strategies, particularly in how trailing cars can “move” leading cars during a race.
Despite acknowledging that the Next Gen car performs exceptionally well on intermediate (INT) and superspeedway (SSW) tracks, Daniels conceded that improvements are necessary for short tracks (ST) and road courses (RC) – as we recently saw at Bristol.
“The frame work of the G7 car and idea provides great racing on some tracks and we want better on others. That’s perfectly ok,” Daniels said.
In response to suggestions from fans to adopt the Xfinity Series platform for the Cup Series to address performance issues, Daniels reaffirmed the commitment to the Next Gen platform.
“That’s not my point. NG7 [Next Gen car] platform is here to stay and bear in mind it’s producing some of the best INT [intermediate] and SSW [superspeedway] races the sport has had in a while. Some RC [road course] races also. ST races need help, we’re all on the same page. It can be done.”
While criticism persists, Daniels urged fans to continue supporting NASCAR with an optimistic outlook. “Keep watching, keep supporting, and don’t give up on us. Also tune in this weekend. Kansas will be a great race.”
