Former Cup Series champion Chase Elliott has never been one to lash out, criticize organizations, or make controversial comments. It’s a part of his personality that not many people have been able to get behind but recently, he let a rare side of him out which surprised some fans. Speaking about the tire compounds made by Goodyear, the Hendrick Motorsports star believes that they do not make much of a difference during a race.

It’s common knowledge how tire compounds work across all kinds of motorsports. Softer compounds are faster but don’t last very long and harder compounds last for several laps but aren’t as fast. To be successful, teams have to use these compounds smartly during a race with strategy in mind, and often, the right compound determines the winner of a race.

Chase Elliott exposes Goodyear’s tire compounds’ effectiveness

But that may not be the case in NASCAR, according to Chase Elliott. The Hendrick Motorsports driver believes that the Next-Gen car does not allow the different tire compounds to work well. There can be a lot of reasons for this. For the tire compounds to work, a car needs to be fairly light, and the Next-Gen is anything but. Its weight creates a lot of downforce, which bears down on the tires, subjecting them to extra pressure from above, which affects their performance.

Perhaps this would not have been an issue had it not been for NASCAR’s stringent rules about all the cars being the same. Engineers are hardly given any wiggle room when it comes to the car’s build which has cut down the scope for innovation. It’s a criticism that the organizers have faced from drivers, fans and insiders alike.

“Man, I’ll shoot you super straight. They change the tire all the time. Not only does it not make the racing look any different, but it’s really hard to tell from inside the car. Regardless of whatever compound they put on — and I’m not saying it doesn’t change things, because it does — but they are such minute things. It’s not gonna look any different. You’re never gonna hear about it. I don’t mean that negatively, but the cars are what they are. We’re racing on asphalt and there are four tires. It can only be so different. Typically, the same guys run good every week whether there’s a tire compound change or not,” Elliott said as per a tweet by Jeff Gluck.

Chase Elliott was not just underwhelmed with the tire compounds, but he did not shy away, like a lot of his counterparts, from raining criticism down on NASCAR’s new aero package, which apparently has hardly made a difference.

The new aero package is not making much of a difference, say former Cup champions

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As per a report in Autoweek, several Cup Series racers believe that the new package has added nothing in terms of the driving experience after a practice session in Phoenix. This is disappointing for NASCAR since there was a lot of promise after the initial test of the package in Phoenix which garnered a positive response from the ones testing. So will this package be enough even to temporarily sort out the short-track racing issues?

“I forgot they did anything until they started talking about it afterwards. I don’t see it really changing a whole lot. I could be totally wrong, but I don’t think it’s going to change much,” Chase Elliott quipped when asked about the new package. Fellow Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr echoed his sentiments when he said, “The teams engineer everything, make the car as close to balance as they can. So I felt exactly like I did here last fall.”

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Fans and drivers will have to wait until Sunday, when the cars go racing under the green flag, to see how the new package works on a shorter track. It has been an issue with the Next-Gen for quite a while now, and early reviews don’t sound very promising. Do you think the new aero package will be able to make a significant difference in short-track racing? Let us know your thoughts.