Kyle Busch Airs His Grievances With NASCAR's Next Gen Car

Shame on those of you who thought Kyle Busch would approve of NASCAR's Next Gen cars that will officially hit the track during the 2022 race season. NASCAR President Steve Phelps said in early May that the organization "wanted to get back to a promise that we had made to the fans, which is to put the 'stock' back in stock car," but one of NASCAR's all-time greats sure isn't having it.

“I don’t like it,” Busch said on the I Am Athlete podcast, per Racing News.

“You take out the craftsmanship of the manufacturers, the teams, and all that sort of stuff or how you build speed. Like, we might spend $10 million in building chassis. The next guy might spend $10 million in building bodies. So, you create separation.

“You create fast cars and slow cars. There’s the same thing in drivers, good drivers and bad drivers. They’re trying to create parity, which I get.

via NASCAR/Toyota

“Some would argue that the good drivers are still going to be the good drivers, they’re going to excel. Yeah, I believe in that. But, it’s going to be harder and slower to do.

“The more the cars are equal, the harder it is for us to pass, make moves and put on a good show.”

via NASCAR.com

While Busch is understandably focused on the car's performance, Phelps and NASCAR seem to be more focused on the car design that fans will see turning laps around the tracks. “It looks like you’ve gone to some type of outfit that’s taken a regular car and just made it look incredibly sporty. There’s a relevance to this race car that we haven’t seen, frankly, in 40, 50 years,” Phelps said of the new car designs.

The design of the shell will be left up to the car manufacturers while NASCAR will go to a single-source manufacturer, which will handle the chassis, parts, and carbon composite bodies.

So while the look of the car will resemble something you'd see on a car lot for the first time in a long time, the guts of the car will be so universal, according to Busch, that passing could become a major issue.

NASCAR believes streamlining the supplier chain will lead to more NASCAR team creation and more bids on the charters that guarantee a car owner a spot into the field on a weekly basis. In other words, the changes coming should be good for the race organization, while Busch is off sulking on a podcast.

Advantage: NASCAR, but it's nice to hear Busch air grievances. Hate him all you want, but the guy keeps things interesting.