Details of the wild plan to throw out the technical rulebook for the $US1 million to win, non-points race at North Wilkesboro and the arguments against it have emerged this week.
According to The Athletic, the proposal was a response to criticism that the showcase event has lost its status as an unmissable part of the NASCAR fixture.
The outlet reported that teams would not be allowed to modify safety-related items in the Next Gen cars, or other aspects such as engines and tyres.
“We had some ideas, and we presented them to the industry,” NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, explained on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“And I’m not going to get into details behind the scenes on why we didn’t get there, but there were some folks within the industry that just didn’t feel like we could go there at this time.
“So we’ve, we’ve elected to pivot on that, on that format.”
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Denny Hamlin, driver for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owner of the 23XI Racing team that fields three Cup entries, expanded on the plan during his Actions Detrimental Podcast.
Hamlin said NASCAR had mooted the idea around a month ago and while initially receptive to the concept, the cost realities soon set in.
“Under the rules that were kind of put in front of us, you have to use Next Gen parts, but you can do whatever you want to them,” he said.
“So what we’re going to do is destroy every piece and part of that car and make it lighter or something.
“We’re going to modify it, we’re going to bend the chassis, we’re going to do all types of things that will make it illegal at any other race track that we go to.”
Quoting the cost of a Next Gen car at over $US300,000, Hamlin said the economics of the event – which has paid the same $US1 million purse since 2003 – did not stack up.
“I’m going to spend a million dollars just in parts and pieces, we haven’t even developed anything yet,” said Hamlin, who claimed the whole concept may cost $2 million per team.
Hamlin said NASCAR should have focused on select areas, such as freeing up rear ride height limitations, to learn what might improve the Next Gen rule package.
“There’s things like that you could do to make the cars look different, run different, and maybe you learn something for the Next Gen going forward,” he said.
“But it’s a project honestly that NASCAR needs to invest in on getting better, not us. We’ve already invested in this damn thing.”
NASCAR has used the Next Gen package in the Cup Series since 2022.
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