NASCAR brought quite a few changes to its superspeedway package at Daytona this past weekend for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, but the results just don’t match up to the expectations most had from the new package. Reduced spoiler size as well as horsepower reduced fuel savings to an extent, but it also split the pack into two distinct halves. 

Although there were visible changes, the on-track product still felt the same. This sparked a discussion among the community on how can NASCAR bridge this gap? What’s the next change? And according to Kevin Harvick, the next big change might be too extensive for the sanctioning body.

“This was better, less power with the dramatic fuel savings. But the way that fuel savings split up into two different packs, that was pretty intriguing,” Harvick said on his Happy Hour Podcast. “It’s tough. I mean, this part of the sport is really tough. It’s not a new car now, but the Gen 7 car is still a new car. And it’s totally different than anything else that we’ve ever raced in NASCAR with the underbody of the car. And I just don’t know that that is the style of car that we need for NASCAR racing.”

This isn’t the opinion from a driver at the back of the pack; this comes from Harvick, who has been one of the most vocal voices about the Gen 7 car. Harvick retired having driven the car in 2022 and 2023.

Harvick believes that NASCAR hasn’t even addressed the crux of the problem yet. The 2014 Cup champion said that with the horsepower and the spoilers, NASCAR has gone as far as possible but it’s still not enough.

“I think that with the diffuser changes and the spoiler changes and all the things that we’ve changed with this race car, you know, the next step, the next real step to this is getting the stuff off the bottom of the car,” said Harvick. “To be able to figure out how to do that.”

The Next Gen car is the first NASCAR vehicle to feature a full carbon fiber, aerodynamically-driven underbody. The older cars had open frames and spaces that trapped the turbulent air. This also came with a rear diffuser that made way for side skirts. In theory this should’ve made cars more stable and less drag. But the problem still exist, and particularly at the speedways.

NASCAR is currently at a point where engineers and mechanics don’t have much to do with standardized chassis, reducing the impact of a team’s unique engineering output; hence, when changes arrive, the engineers are able to tweak just enough so that their drivers don’t feel like anything has changed. 

That is something that Harvick wants NASCAR to change; he believes that the changes being made should not be things that can be easily deciphered by the engineers. 

“The changes have to be big enough to where the engineers can’t figure it. And that’s what happened here,” said Harvick. “They all figured out how to make this car drive just as good as what they had.”

It wasn’t all bad; Harvick still believes the direction NASCAR is taking to make changes is right. Harvick admitted that while he believes the impact of changes will only be seen when changes are made to the bottom of the car, which is currently providing the downforce that we see, some good did come out of the race in Daytona. 

“The bumps and the things that happened were a little bit different,” said Harvick. “The spacing was a little bit better. It wasn’t like just one pack all bumper to bumper; your runs could be a little bit better. So I think directionally it was probably a little bit better.”

But a little bit better isn’t enough. Talladega will be the last superspeedway that NASCAR visits this season, and we might see the same package there. A shorter spoiler, reduced horsepower, tire changes, and roof flaps, NASCAR has tried every trick in the book to mitigate the fuel saving problem. Perhaps it’s time they look at the root cause of this current trend, and makes some more positive changes.