There has been enough criticism around the Gen-7 car that NASCAR currently uses in the Cup Series, and that is unlikely to stop anytime soon. Those criticisms are often the loudest after an O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race goes down to the wire, as was the case in Vegas when Corey Day pulled off a remarkable victory.

With the expectations of criticism to come, former driver and former FOX broadcaster Kenny Wallace decided to get ahead and let his opinions be known on the thoughts that are expected to be heard over podcasts this week. 

“When the race is over. Dale Jr., Rodney Childers, everybody starts going, ‘This O’Reilly car is the greatest car I’ve ever seen. It’s putting on a hell of a show.’ What they’re doing is they’re hoping NASCAR hears them,” Wallace said. “I’m gonna make a comedy out of it. This is Saturday Night Live. Dale Jr., Rodney Childers, Jeff Gluck: ‘Hey NASCAR, this O’Riley car is unreal. It races great. We should sh–can the Next Gen car, get rid of a billion dollars of the race cars, and rebuild this old car.’ You’re wasting your breath. NASCAR’s not gonna sh–can their next-gen car and go back to the old car.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. owns JR Motorsports and has been one of the most vocal voices against the very foundation of the next-gen car. Rodney Childers is the crew chief for JRM’s No.1 Chevrolet, which Carson Kvapil drove to second in Vegas. Jeff Gluck is a motorsports journalist for The Athletic, and he has two podcasts, The Teardown and Gluckcast, both of which are produced by Dale Jr’s Dirty Mo Media. 

Wallace has always offered a different outlook to that which has been said on any trending topic in NASCAR, and his ways of doing it are often entertaining. And that was the tone he took when taking a dig at the opinions of the three he mentioned, who have often been voices in favor of the Gen-6 car, which is currently used in NOAPS. 

Their criticism of the Gen-7 car is often along the lines of the lack of driver input or the team’s ability to work on the cars and adapt them to their requirements. There is also the thought that the Gen-7 car moves further away from the concept of what a stock car should be. 

However, Wallace pointed to the reasons he believes NASCAR wouldn’t take a backward step on their cars. And the logic from the former broadcaster is hard to argue against. 

“It is a great car(Gen-6),” Wallace said. “I’m not debating that point. What I’m debating is it’s called useless energy.”

Wallace was pointing to the twisted-sister concept that teams applied to their chassis to create sideforce. This meant the Gen-6 car burned a lot of fuel to create the optimum drag required, which in itself points to the car fighting against its base foundation. Burning that much energy just to get optimum drag before you can reach the point where that drag can be used to get clear on track makes the Gen-6 car a gas guzzler in an era where the world is shifting towards sustainable practices. 

The Gen-7 car, on the other hand, is designed to stick to the ground and is aerodynamically efficient in terms of fuel consumption. But Wallace also said that it isn’t just the cars that make it feel like NOAPS races are better than Cup races; it’s also the drivers. 

“It was a great race last night for one damn reason: Corey Day,” Wallace said. “Corey Day made the O’Reilly car look good. Yes, it’s a great car. I agree with you. Corey Day made that car look good. Corey Day, Corey Heim, as they say in baseball, the future. Remember what I’m saying, bookmark this: in five years, it’s going to be the Corey and Corey show.”

Heim is on his way to the Cup Series as 23XI Racing’s full-time No.35 Toyota driver from 2027. Heim ran a limited schedule in the No. 67 23XI Toyota and won at San Diego and the crown jewel race at the Brickyard. 

Day is in the HMS pipeline to make it to the Cup Series eventually. Having shifted from dirt to asphalt as recently as 2024, HMS believes he needs to sharpen his skills more before a full-time ride in the top-tier series comes along. And Wallace was filled with praise about Day and even recalled how he made it to HMS in the first place. 

“Kvapil had that race won, and that d— Corey Day, if I were to turn the volume down and watch the race, I’d have sworn that was Kyle Larson in that car,” said Wallace. “And it was Kyle Larson that told Rick Hendrick, ‘You gotta hire Corey Day. He’s the next me.’ And now it’s finally coming to fruition.”

“This guy, this Corey Day, has hardly raced asphalt. He was running the bottom, leading Kvapil, gets by, and he don’t even run the middle.  He’s run the bottom, he says. ‘I’m not gonna run the middle.’ Corey Day goes hitting the wall and wins the d— race. So remember what I told you, it wasn’t the car that put on the race like you all think it was. It was Corey Day that put on the race.”

Wallace eventually came back to the point that it was Day that made the race exciting by running so hard that he actually bumped into the wall while attempting to clear Kvapil. This happened on the last lap, and Day managed to keep his car on track with enough speed to zoom past the finish line to take the win as well as get himself within 41 points of championship leader Sheldon Creed, with five races to go.