After the race in Martinsville, a flood of criticism came NASCAR's way from Chad Knaus and Denny Hamlin. The short track racing problem was once again on full display as the new package failed to improve the passing and quality of the racing.
Knaus, who got inducted into the Hall of Fame earlier this year, recently called out NASCAR's attempts to elevate the racing at short tracks by not changing what needs to be changed. He told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio:
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In my opinion, we continue to pull down force off of these cars and the racing continues to get worse and worse and I just don't think that's what we need to be doing."
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Knaus claimed that from an efficiency standpoint, NASCAR should make the Next Gen cars race the way they were intended to be raced. To him, the stock car racing governing body flipping the script by taking off all the down force from the cars has made Goodyear look bad.
"I think we've put Goodyear in a bad spot by pulling all the down force off of the cars because the crew chiefs and the teams don't have the ability to tune the chassis as well because there's just not enough vertical load on the cars at these flat tracks," Chad Knaus said.
In the end, Knaus' vote was to increase the down force in the cars and to try and get some discrepancy in the performance of the cars.
Denny Hamlin demands NASCAR makes a change amid dire short track situation
On the recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin urged with the governing body to make an urgent change considering the deteriorating quality of racing on short tracks. Hamlin was of the opinion that the sport's governing body can no longer continue to ignore the short tracks problem.
And even with their attempts to make a difference, NASCAR isn't pulling on the right strings as per the #11 driver.
"Until you make a horsepower, or tire, or shifting change, you will have the same result. We keep tinkering with aerodynamics. I'm sorry, we're running 45 miles per hour in the middle [of the corners] at Martinsville. It's not aerodynamics. It's a horsepower-to-tire ratio, and until we get that through our thick skulls, it will remain the same."
But as would be the case with Knaus' suggestions and as would be the case with Hamlin's demands, the decision to make a considerable change can only come from the higher ups in the organisation. As for when that will happen, nobody can know for sure, and only hope it comes soon.
