By Saajan Jogia

Copyright newsweek

The NASCAR Next Gen car, introduced in 2022, has been criticized yet again by former driver and JR Motorsports team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. He highlighted an aerodynamic challenge with the car that he noticed on several racetracks, including in last weekend’s race at Kansas Speedway.

Dale Jr. was pleased with the racing spectacle Kansas produced, which included a big twist in the end, which led Chase Elliott to snatch the race lead from Bubba Wallace and win the race. The Next Gen car has attracted severe criticism from drivers this year, mainly due to the drop in power output compared to the previous car.

Apart from that, Dale Jr. pointed out how dirty air makes it difficult for drivers to pass the car in front on corners, prompting them to lift off the gas. However, that breaks their momentum, leading to fewer overtakes during the race. Explaining the problem on his Dale Jr. Download podcast, he said:

“That track is pretty entertaining. … The only thing that I don’t love — look, that was a good product, that was a great product on the racetrack this weekend — the one thing I do not love about the Next Gen car is how bad the air is when a car gets behind another car. We saw a couple moments in that race where they’re all trying to avoid each other’s wake when they go down in the corner, like you’re behind a guy on the straightaway and you’re thinking, ‘Alright, is he going low or high because I’m doing the opposite.’

Chris Buescher, driver of the #17 Body Guard Ford, and Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 SAIA LTL Freight Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 Presented by ESPN BET at Kansas Speedway on September 28, 2025 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

“That’s the way all of them think as they’re going down the straightaway, I’m gonna do the opposite of the guy in front of me. But you gotta get clean air under the center of the car, and sometimes we’ll see, and we saw it in this race, they’ll make the wrong choice and boy, they have to jump out of the gas because they go into the corner following a car, they have no grip and they get out of the gas and lose all of this momentum.”

In August, Dale Jr. pointed out other things he doesn’t like about the Next Gen car, such as the diffuser and low-profile tires, since they make it more track-focused and less like a stock racing car. Newsweek Sports reported his comments:

“Would I have ever built a NASCAR stock car that had a diffuser? No. I wouldn’t have put a low-profile tire on it and changed the sidewall so drivers can’t feel the tire, don’t know where the limited grip is, and can’t trust it.

“But it’s all here. It’s here. It’s bought and paid for. There’s no change coming. So, if you know that nothing’s going to change, they ain’t taking the diffuser off. They’re not changing the tire, they’re not changing the brakes. And if you know that, then what good is it to sit here on this podcast and **** about it?”