Plenty has been made about the Next Gen car since its introduction in 2022. While the regulations and guidelines surrounding it might be debatable, their effectiveness is slowly but surely seen. For this, NASCAR needs to be credited. But at the same time, the competition’s team owners also deserve some acknowledgment. 3x Cup Series champion Tony Stewart explains why.

Last year, the debut of the Next Gen car saw an instant impact in the NASCAR Cup Series. To everyone’s surprise, the competition witnessed 19 different winners in 36 races. While the impact was clearly visible, a new revelation has come to light through Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart.

Tony Stewart shares why NASCAR team owners played a key role in bringing the Next Gen car to life

With his tremendous experience and knowledge of race cars, Stewart has always provided key insights to his audience. Especially after his NASCAR retirement, Stewart has only become more vocal and appealing with the information he provides.

Recently, he got into a candid conversation with another former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace. Speaking on “The Kenny Wallace Show,” the veteran Xfinity Series driver asked Stewart an interesting question. The 51-year-old was put in the spot to confirm if there was any truth to the rumors about how NASCAR team owners came together to push the idea of the Next Gen car.

With no hesitance, Stewart answered the question with detailed reasoning. He said, “Absolutely! It had to happen because the spending per team per year was getting astronomical. The resources that you were having to put into it and what it was doing was separating lower-third, middle-third, and top-tier teams. The top-tier teams were well funded, had a lot of resources.

“The lower-tier teams, it was all they could do to just survive and get cars to the racetrack. So we needed, for the health of the sport, we needed to find a way to cut costs to cut back on.” To validate the argument, the Indiana-born driver explained the situation at a point in time with his former boss and JGR owner Joe Gibbs.

He said, “I think Gibbs at one point had over 600 employees for four Cup teams and running a car one race and then stripping it. It’s crazy and that was the standard, that’s how far the competition has pushed itself and how technology has got involved and pushed this sport. So the owners realized for the longevity of it from the ownership side that we needed to ask for that.”

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Well, that certainly gives more perspective given the costs involved in a Cup Series car. However, there is a downside to the Next Gen car as Stewart points out.

Smoke highlights the weak link in the Next Gen car amid frequent wrecking scenarios this season

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Safe to say the frequency of wrecks this season has been quite high. With the Next Gen cars encouraging drivers to be more fearless with wrecks, it is a rising concern. Most recently, Austin Dillon explained how the strong front end of the Gen-7 car has instilled such courage in the drivers.

To this Stewart says, “The front ends are strong, the toe links in the rear are not strong. That’s the thing that you have to guard. You can change them obviously during a pit stop but that is the weak link.” Clearly, something needs to be done about this until something disastrous happens.

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While the owners may have been right with their cost-saving approach, it is imperative to prioritize the drivers’ safety. After all, their on-track actions make NASCAR the beautiful sport that it is.