Brad Keselowski calls NASCAR Next-Gen car 'a pandemic baby' over safety concerns

2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski is the latest of the drivers to have an opinion on the Next Gen NASCAR car, which debuted this year.

The Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing co-owner and driver has been observant of the issues other drivers have faced with newer cars throughout the current season. He has now taken an objective approach to the obvious criticism aimed towards the governing body of the sport.

The seventh-generation cars have been on track more than 30 times this season, with the championship nearing its end. With the 2022 playoff Round of 8 fast approaching, Keselowski touched upon how NASCAR had enough time to react earlier in the year when several drivers raised concerns over the car's overall safety. Previous crashes such as Kurt Busch's impact with the wall at Pocono and most recently Alex Bowman's crash in Texas proved the severity of the impact the car transmits onto the driver, as voiced before.

NASCAR, as a result, has finally decided to test the seventh generation Cup cars at their facility in Ohio, focusing on the rear clip and bumper. With five weeks to go until the 2022 season finale, Brad Keselowski is not particularly optimistic about any concrete solutions being found. He said:

“Just the way the teams rotate the cars, they’re usually three to four weeks ahead, so I don’t see us having anything different before the year is over. I think we need to be working right now to have something for Daytona.”

He further elaborated on how the new car has been a product of reliance on computer simulations a little too much rather than real-world testing and said:

“I think there is some sensible work being done. You have to keep in mind that when this car was built it was a bit of a pandemic baby. There was a lot of simulation work done and all those things, but there wasn’t a lot of real-world crash testing simply because you couldn’t do those things. I think in the sense of it being a pandemic baby, we’re going through some of those hurdles right now to work through those challenges.”

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Brad Keselowski elaborates on his mindset going into 2022 NASCAR Yellawood 500

Ahead of the second Round of 12 race scheduled to run last Sunday afternoon, owner-operator Brad Keselowski spoke to the media about what he expects to see in the race in terms of aggression from other drivers. He said:

"For a while there the racing was so aggressive because nobody was ever afraid of getting hurt, and who knows if it'll ever come back a little bit which probably isn't a bad thing."

When asked about whether he would alter his aggressive moves going into the race, Keselowski said:

"I don't think so. I'm pretty comfortable with the moves I make here."

Watch the complete interview below:

Brad Keselowski ultimately finished in P24 at Yellawood 500, a race hampered by penalties he received due to speeding on pit road.