Imagine the situation being so bad that even archrivals find common ground. Just recently, teammates Joey Logano and Kyle Busch let out a sigh of frustration over the new short-track package. While Elton Sawyer, the VP of NASCAR, promised they’d buckle down to better the setup, the drivers from Team Penske and Richard Childress Racing didn’t hold back their critiques of the whole short-track scenario.

Now, stepping into the mix, HMS’s CP of the competition, Chad Knaus, is throwing a throwback solution into the ring—something that legends like Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr used to do back in the day.

Chad Knaus thinks yanking the downforce might’ve landed us in a pickle

On SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Logano threw in his two cents, saying NASCAR’s got to shake things up with the short-track package. If cranking up the horsepower isn’t the ticket, then maybe tweaking the tires could do the trick. Meanwhile, at ‘The Paperclip,’ Kyle Busch didn’t mince words about this season’s changes, basically saying, “I didn’t think we could make it worse, but we did…”

And then, Elton Sawyer’s been out there saying NASCAR and Goodyear are on it, trying to make things better. But Chad Knaus dropped his own take, not exactly what everyone wants to hear, but maybe what’s needed. He pointed out, “The racing continues to get worse and worse and I just don’t think that’s what we need to be doing.”

“I’m not going to be popular by saying this probably with some folks, but… from an efficiency standpoint and everything that we’re doing, […] we only raced this car a couple of times with a higher downforce package. And, you know, all of a sudden, we flip the script and we start pulling downforce off of them and doing all of that- I think we put good you’re in a bad spot pulling all the downforce off the cars.”

Offering a solution, the HMS VP of the competition said, “Let the guys work on the cars. Let them go race to try to get some discrepancy in the performance of the vehicle. And if a guy can change his spring and actually affect the handling of the car, He’s going to probably do a little bit better job.”

Now, it’s not like NASCAR drivers need to moonlight as mechanics, but having a solid grasp of their car’s mechanics, how adjustments and tire choices impact speed, and figuring out the best setup can really pay off, just like Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt Sr used to do back in the day. This way, when there are tweaks to the short track package, drivers might have a clearer idea of how those changes are translating to the track and their driving.

But why is it that the short-track package, which seemed off to a strong start, is now under the microscope, needing fixes yet again?

The short-track package’s journey from Phoenix to Martinsville has been a ride

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The NASCAR Cup Series won’t be hitting another short track for a bit, which might be a blessing in disguise. It gives NASCAR some breathing room to check out how their short-track game is playing out and figure out how to fix things up. The offseason saw the introduction of a new package aimed at the Next Gen car, featuring a simpler diffuser, axing engine panel strakes, streamlining diffuser strakes, and throwing on a 3-inch spoiler.

During a two-day trial run in December at the track, NASCAR collected driver insights on how the car felt. Goodyear also dropped a new tire mix that wears down quickly. The tweaks seemed to do their bit at Phoenix Raceway, showing some step-by-step improvements. The numbers said there was more overtaking action, though the Phoenix crowd still had a hard time getting around each other. Yet, drivers like Denny Hamlin and Daniel Suarez felt things were slightly on the up compared to before.

Denny Hamlin Believes “Available for Hire” Dale Jr Is the Key to Fix NASCAR’s Short Track Problems

Bristol threw down one of the season’s best short-track shows, but the new package wasn’t part of the equation there. The race turned spicy with tires wearing down, pushing drivers to pit for fresh rubber sooner than they’d gas up.

Richmond’s excitement peaked early, with the pack kicking off on wet weather tires due to damp tracks. Those tires gripped like nobody’s business, making it easier for cars to zip around each other until they switched back to slicks once the track dried up about 30 laps in.

After the Martinsville race, which eventually failed to capture its usual magic, NASCAR hoped the Next Gen car would bring everyone to a more even playing field, but they’ve run into some hiccups at short tracks and road courses. This level of parity across the Cup Series is something they didn’t quite see coming.