NASCAR VP Steve O’Donnell may be one of the ultimate “yes” men in NASCAR but he still mixes it up with the fans on Twitter.
Sunday after Michigan’s monotonous race Steve hopped on the old Twitter machine and answered some questions for fans. One question asked by this Zach character regarded the Gen 7 car. The next generation of Cup car that NASCAR has talked about, that was supposed to debut in 2021. The next car with technology built into it, whatever that means for a Cup car.
Steve answered Zach with 2022 as the earliest! That means at minimum we have three more years of racing with the Gen 6 body.
Honestly, this is terrible news. Instead of debuting the new car sooner NASCAR wants to make teams spend enough money a Nigerian Prince would be jealous on converting their current Gen 6 cars into plate cars for 2022. Cutting air duct holes, doing the R&D, replacing oil pans and splitters doesn’t come from NASCAR, that comes from the teams. And then in three years, you have to have a completely new car. Sick.
The next question that came up was “will there be a splitter.”
Everyone should hate the splitter on the car. All it does is seal these cars to the track and make them so much easier to drive. Look at Harvick. His car was so planted to the race track he held the wheel steadier than anyone I’ve ever seen in the middle of the corner. That doesn’t create for good racing.
So what did Steve say?
HE SAID NO!
Which means that there will definitely be one. But if he’s telling the truth that is a win for fans and Dale Jr. everywhere.
Instead of having teams modify the noses of cars for 2021 by cutting holes in them and what why not just take the splitter off cars? Put the valence back on, shorten the side skirts and make these guys figure out how to go fast again. It seems like a better use of money than a package that fans have bemoaned and drivers have openly mocked.
Need to get Bren Dewar’s thoughts on this too.
