Chaotic. That’s one way to describe the 2025 Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race featured a staggering 12 cautions for 73 laps, with Austin Cindric leading 60 before falling victim to a multi-car wreck on Lap 247. A few laps earlier, pole-sitter Carson Hocevar didn’t enjoy much luck either, despite leading the pack initially. He was forced to the back of the field when caution interrupted a green-flag cycle of pit stops on Lap 219. It was just a wreck fest all around.

Denny Hamlin, who endured his first DNF of the season in Texas, couldn’t help but criticize the Next-Gen car and the quality of racing at ‘The Great American Speedway’. Is he just bitter about finishing rock-bottom in 38th place, or does the veteran racer have a point?

Denny Hamlin felt helpless in Texas

Denny Hamlin had quite a forgettable day in Texas. He got off to a disastrous start after some miscommunication with the No. 11 team left him stranded on the track while others pitted under caution. By the time the No. 11 team managed to sort things out, the veteran had already lost track position, and it just went from bad to worse from that point on. On Lap 75, his car slowed down and spun, catching fire because of engine troubles between Turns 1 and 2. In one quick instant, Hamlin’s 21-race streak of lead-lap finishes came to a premature end.

Naturally, the veteran wasn’t too happy with the race in the Lone Star State. Sharing his thoughts on the race being a wreckfest on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin said, “We can go through every wreck and talk about how the track profile and the aerodynamics of the Next-Gen car cause the wrecks in some sort of way. None of these wrecks are intentional. You can get into these pockets of air where it’s just really really hard to control.” The veteran racer went on to say, “The #19 [Chase Briscoe] spun, in the same spot the #21 [Josh Berry] did, and in the same spot the #8 [Kyle Busch] did. All those cars spun because they ran over this bump between Turns 3 and 4.” 

Ever since Texas Motor Speedway has been revamped, the bump between Turns 3 and 4 has only gotten worse with the Next-Gen cars. Just like we saw in last year’s 2024 Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400, cars trying to race side-by-side led to the vehicle on the outside bottoming out and immediately spinning into the outside wall. Grinding out the bump hasn’t really helped matters either. Kyle Busch, who spun at that very spot during the race, knew how complex the venue can be, saying, “Texas, it’s a challenging race track.” 

Hamlin further spoke about how the engineering of the Next-Gen car, combined with these bumps, is a recipe for disaster. “We have no overbody and all underbody. We have to run these things like a motorboat… When it hits a bump, it spikes the load in the shocks and spins the car out… The higher you go in 3 and 4, the worse that bump is. It’s probably why Blaney didn’t wanna run the high line on that restart.” Hamlin is calling out the Next-Gen car for its incredibly difficult handling with air getting sucked under the car every time it hits a bump, especially at Texas. The bumps ended multiple races but also clouded the thoughts of potential race winner Ryan Blaney.

The Team Penske #12 was fighting for the lead as the race kept restarting in stage 2 because of frequent cautions. Blaney normally took the outside lane, but after battling those bumps many times, Blaney decided to start inside and had a poor restart, gave up his lead to Michael McDowell, and eventually finished third. Blaney said after the race, “It looks like there’s two lanes at a time, but you see guys bust their bu– over in three and four all the time because there’s a massive bump. So you don’t even wanna run up there. So the track is not very racy.”

In the last few years, Texas Motor Speedway has become somewhat of a wildcard race. Joey Logano, who won the 2025 Würth 400, was the ninth different winner at the 1.5-mile facility in the last nine years, highlighting just how unpredictable the place can be. The track was repaved and reconfigured in 2017, and those changes have seemingly created even bigger problems. Even though the first two corners have been widened from 60 to 80 feet, passing has become even more difficult. Is that because of the Next-Gen car’s limitations, or the venue being poorly reconfigured? Perhaps it’s a combination of both.

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Hamlin wants to compete in the Xfinity Series

Denny Hamlin has had enough. The Next-Gen car’s struggles have been well documented, particularly on superspeedways and short tracks, and the veteran driver wants to enjoy living life in the fast lane again. At 44, the Florida native is in the twilight of his career, and even though he hasn’t always been a fan of venues like Daytona or Talladega, it seems like he wants some adventures in NASCAR’s second tier before he finally calls it a day.

Sharing his thoughts on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said, “I used to think there was no way I would sign up for Superspeedway racing, but I would love… Joe Gibbs Racing, if you’re hearing this, sign me up for an Xfinity superspeedway race. That is how racing used to be. That’s how good we used to have it. We just never knew it. Like these cars are moving around. You can create runs. I want to do it before I retire. I want to do it. One more Xfinity race.”

It’s a sentiment that Kyle Larson echoed as well. He said, “You can run much closer to people in Xfinity, which is nice.” ‘Yung Money’ also went on to say, “The Cup [Series] car is much tougher to get to people and pass them. You can’t really manipulate their car.” It seems like two of NASCAR’s heavyweights would prefer stepping down a tier just to compete on some of the most iconic venues on the calendar. Perhaps it’s time the sanctioning body goes back to the drawing board to improve the Next-Gen car, so that the best drivers want to compete at the highest level.