About a month ago, Kyle Busch made some critical comments about the Next Gen car. What the Joe Gibbs Racing driver had specifically spoken about was the lack of overtaking with the new car, and the fact that it creates more dirty air.

However, Michael McDowell doesn’t share the same assessment of the new car as Busch. Rather, McDowell thinks Busch’s comments come from a place of personal gain and loss and not a general place.

“People are talking about how hard it is to pass and the dirty air. The dirty air is way better this year than it was last year, way better. Our cars are so much better in traffic this year,” McDowell said. “You can race so much harder than you could even last year.”

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“The difference is that Kyle Busch isn’t a second a lap faster, he’s only a tenth faster. And when you’re only a tenth faster, it’s sure very hard to pass somebody. But when you’re a second a lap faster, it’s pretty easier to figure out how to get around somebody,” he continued.

“So the gap is close so much that from 1st to 20th that so that’s why it’s so hard to pass. It’s not because of dirty air.”

What did Kyle Busch say about the Next Gen car?

During a press conference last month, Kyle Busch had shared all his frustrations with the Next Gen car.

“This car is worse in traffic than the previous car. I feel like all the underbody stuff isn’t at all what we expected,” he said. However, Busch admitted that the cars “drive fun,” with the nice thing about them being when they ride alone, in full air, they drive well.

But according to him, if they are striving to make the cars better in traffic, they haven’t done so.

“This feels like the biggest struggle is within me and my team is some of it, so what are you doing to fix it? I do not know,” he added.

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