Tony Stewart Finally Delivers His Verdict on the Much-anticipated 2022 NASCAR Cars

Tony Stewart raced in NASCAR from 1996 until 2016 and saw the sport go through lots of changes. One of which was the cars. The Hall Of Famer drove three generations of cars, from Gen 4 to the most recent but now retired, Gen 6.

From next season, a new generation of cars will take over in NASCAR, aptly named the ‘Next Gen’. And Tony Stewart, along with Dale Earnhardt Jr. got behind its wheel and put in some laps for the Goodyear Tire Test at the Bowman Gray Stadium. The test was done to determine the best compound ahead of the Next-Gen car’s debut.

“It was fun today to get a chance to come up here, to be invited by NASCAR to come up and do the tire test for the Coliseum race,” Stewart said.

Stewart explained how the difference between Radial ties and Bias Ply tires will enable the driver to stand out and do more work.

“We don’t want those cars to drive perfect, we want them to struggle a little bit to get them going,” Stewart said.

The tire change also makes a big ‘feel’ difference in Stewart’s opinion.

However, Stewart probably didn’t have the smoothest of experience driving the new car, considering this was the first time he got inside a stock car in the last five years.

“It’s definitely easier to lock the front left tyre up, I think the centre of gravity is a little higher in this car, it’s going to make the drivers have to drive more.”

Earnhardt Jr. gives the reason for the struggle of Tony Stewart

Dale Earnhardt Jr. described Stewart’s testing experience of the Radial vs Bias Ply difference and its effects on Tony Stewart’s laps.

“We saw Tony step out a couple of times here and spin the car out,” Earnhardt said as reported in Kick In The Tyres.

“He’s noted that the shorter side wall tire, it’s a little harder to understand when that tire is going to lose the grip.”

Earnhardt Jr. who put in some laps himself explained that struggling or rather adapting to a new tyre at Bowman Gray Stadium wasn’t a first. NASCAR transitioned from Bias Ply tyres to Radials in 1989 and then too, drivers struggled initially.

“We went through this same sort of thing when they went away from the bias-ply to the radial tire.”

The Next-Gen car will go through plenty more tests ahead of its debut at the L.A. Coliseum in February 2022.

Do you think drivers will struggle in the new car or will they transition easily?

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