Across the garage, press box, and fan forums, there’s been a persistent chorus of complaints about how the new car handles, races, and entertains. One summary put it bluntly: “The sport did not test the Next Gen car enough … the car wasn’t ready … you cannot pass.” Many observers say the car’s spec components and aero design have flattened out differences between teams, creating parity, yes, but removing nuance and excitement.

Add in safety concerns and engineering glitches, from wheel failures to tire problems to under-tray aerodynamics that made cars “stick to the racetrack” instead of battling side by side, and the feeling grows that the Next Gen car, for all its promise, has under-delivered on what many feel NASCAR should be about. But Kevin Harvick seems to disagree with this opinion.

Kevin Harvick defends the new-gen cars

On the latest Happy Hour podcast, Mamba Smith kicked off: “I think it’s very hard with this generation of racing to have eight-win seasons or nine-win seasons.”

Mamba nails the shift. Before Next Gen hit in 2022, big win hauls happened often: Harvick with nine in 2020, Truex Jr. eight in 2017, Busch eight in 2018, Logano eight in 2015. Now, six, which was Byron’s mark in 2023, is the max. The car cranked parity, spitting out 19 winners in 2022. No more custom edges; everyone starts even.

Harvick fired back: “I thought that, but I don’t think so. I think our sport has evolved back into the dominant teams, right?”

He sees the big dogs pulling ahead again. Hendrick, Gibbs, Penske snagged most wins lately, using sims and data to outsmart the pack. Even Byron credits Chevy’s loop for his breakout. Money and brains beat the spec sheet.

Kevin Harvick added, “And I think that it’s easier to not have it happen because it is so hard. I think it’s harder to make it happen and it’s more work… the workload that it takes to be good, that is on the engineers and the crew chief and the driver, is at an all-time high.”

Success hides in the details now. Sims run nonstop, tires get dissected, and every tenth is chased. Drivers log screen time over track laps. Larson calls it hunting millimeters. The grind never stops.

He kept going: “Yeah, and it takes so many of them to gain an advantage that the workload is way up… and that commitment, the younger guys are going to have an easier time doing that.”

Young blood thrives in the digital deep end. Byron, Reddick, and Bell eat sim hours like candy. Another factor is that the vets juggle family, while rookies pour all in. No kids, no distractions, full throttle on the puzzle. Harvick wrapped: “Some of them don’t have a wife, some don’t have kids… the problem-solving piece of it is a massive piece of the puzzle to go along with the workload.”

Life balance tips the scale. Harvick stepped away partly for time at home. Rising stars live racing, brains sharp for every tweak. The Next Gen demands total buy-in, and youth delivers. The Next Gen grind hit Joe Gibbs Racing hard at Martinsville, tying right into the workload wars.

JGR engine woes as bad springs spark worry

Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe blew engines mid-race, bad valve springs from a sketchy batch. Both are already locked for Phoenix, so the sting eased, but the pattern worries.

Coach Joe Gibbs confirmed on SiriusXM: “I think it always concerns you anytime you have a motor issue. We feel like this morning, we went through everything that happened and got all the parts out, and we have a plan and strategy where we end up in a good position, and it doesn’t come back to us this next week in Phoenix. We have those parts, and anytime you have valve spring issues, they come in batches, and we think we have that covered.”

Parts pulled, bad ones binned. Toyota leads the fix, perfectionists on edge. Hamlin’s string of woes, starter, steering, now this, tests faith. Hamlin climbed out: “I’m obviously concerned, but there obviously nothing I can do about it. We’ll live wi,h it and hopefully we’ll get back nex,t week and we are just going to have to see how it goes. I’m confident in the speed that we’ll have next week. I’m really confident in what this team is going to bring next week and we’ll bring out; best; hopefully it lasts.”

The Next Gen demands flawless prep, and one bad batch bites. Harvick’s workload truth hits home. Engineers sweat details to dodge disaster. Phoenix looms; JGR prays the fix holds.