‘It Was Not Sustainable’: NASCAR President Clears the Air About the Next-Gen Car as Calls Grow to Dump It

The NASCAR community has been vocal about its feelings towards the Next Gen car and their issues with tracks. After hearing these debates, the NASCAR President, Steve O’Donnell, has finally made his feelings clear on the Door Bumper Clear Podcast and given NASCAR’s side of the argument on why the cars are built the way they are.

“The teams were out of control in terms of money; it was not sustainable, and we didn’t have any new owners coming in. If they did, they were gone,” said President O’Donnell.

The reality that was forced upon the organization was almost existential in nature, where if quick changes were not made, even if they succeeded, there would be no point to it if they didn’t survive.

“Guys winning championships [were] out of the sport,” he adds, further stating, “When we looked ahead, we didn’t see a bright future. OEMs were talking to us about this isn’t sustainable. Sponsors were getting out of the sport.”

This forced NASCAR to step in directly because of how necessary it was. “We made a decision… working with the industry to come up with a car model that would kind of try to curtail some of the costs. Not perfect by any means.”

The returns from this new shift in policy were apparent and ready to take shape. In fact, they were the exact ones that NASCAR had anticipated. O’Donnell added, “We saw new owners come in. We saw new teams win, which is great for the sport.” This in itself was evidence enough for the organization to understand that long-standing change was required, which had been ignored to date.

Another prevailing issue the fans have long waited to be addressed is adding more horsepower to cars. “The short tracks, you know, we’re adding some horsepower, not as much as fans would want. I understand that. Looking at some things we could do with the spoiler on the car,” said O’Donnell.

This conversation then extended to superspeedways, where a candid tone by the president was interesting to hear. “Certainly, when we look at what the balance, I got together with Junior and Jarrett and a bunch of guys, Harvick, Blaney… we talked about superspeedway racing,” he says, while also adding, “And one of the things that he talked about was, well, you know, just go back to single file up against the wall. And then the fans would complain and say, what is this?”

And that then brings us to the latest update provided by O’Donnell that, in turn, also sets up a very interesting viewership experience for dejected fans quite soon. Fans who have been calling for the abandonment of the latest-gen car and its upgrade to something better, that is, non-electric, which O’Donnell jokingly suggested some time back, irking the fans, as well as something that behaves superior in traffic. Even drivers and racing celebrities such as Kevin Harvick have come out and said that the car is such because NASCAR wanted it to be such, further dejecting the fans. To clarify the same and make the racing and viewing experience better, O’Donnell commented,

“I don’t want any fan to say, hey, NASCAR did this, and they think it’s perfect, but somewhere there, there’s a balance. The two-wide thing is not great,” he says bluntly, adding the kicker, “So we’re gonna make some tweaks in Talladega. Not perfect by any means.”

So what are these new changes in Talladega that the fans should be looking forward to, that could provide respite to a hazy viewership experience? Is it something that we should be waiting for eagerly, or is it another one of those NASCAR marketing traps?

Stage manipulation, not setup: NASCAR’s Talladega fix targets fuel-saving dynamics

The O’Donnell drop about the tweaks in Talladega was not a simple change in car design, but rather a much-needed change in competition format intervention. NASCAR revised the 2026 stage lengths to 98–143–188, replacing the earlier 60–120–188 structure, with a clear objective that was to eliminate the need for fuel stops in the final two stages.

Why do they think it’s necessary? NASCAR believes that this fueling behavior dictates the pace of the entire race. As explained by officials, the previous format encouraged drivers to run below full throttle, managing mileage rather than competing for track position. By restructuring the stages, NASCAR aims to remove the strategic incentive to lift early and organize around fuel windows, especially in those moments when the race is getting warm towards the end, only to be interrupted by, well, lack of fuel.

Another important change that must be noted is the strategic divergence in Stage 1. Now this is where it gets interesting. Here, teams must choose to split between one or two stop approaches, having great potential to disturb the uniformity of the pack, as well as we could witness increased variation in track position cycles.

We would say that this is a deliberate attempt to break the sustained equilibrium that has defined recent superspeedway racing.

Imagine reduced passive pacing and fewer fuel-conservation stretches, with that awesome continuous race flow rather than breaks, to increase viewership ratings. The cherry on top is that this isn’t the end of the road, but rather the beginning of one, for NASCAR has framed this as an interim measure, with broader technical evaluation scheduled for the Daytona preseason test, where bigger changes may follow, forcing us to keep our fingers crossed for the season to come.