"It’s going to cost them a lot of money": Kyle Larson shares his pragmatic take on 'tricky situation' with NASCAR short tracks

Following the race at Bristol, Kyle Larson shared his take on what NASCAR can do to make the Next Gen car race better at short tracks. Since its introduction in 2022, the Next Gen car hasn't delivered the level of racing product the Gen 6 car had on short tracks.

As a response, NASCAR has repeatedly tweaked and updated small elements like aero and tires to find the right balance. Earlier this year, the Bristol race and its tire management crisis led to one of the most exciting races at a short track in recent memory, signifying hope for the Next Gen at short track discourse.

However, mere months from that, at the same track, Kyle Larson led over 450 laps of 500 to win the race, kickstarting the conversation of what needs to be done with the Next Gen car to make it race better at short tracks again.

When this subject was presented to Larson recently on the DJD Reloaded, he said:

"I don’t know because, well for one, I’m not a car owner so I don’t deal with … I think it’s easy for us to sit here and say, ‘Well the tires might not be the biggest thing that’s going to change the racing so we need to start changing stuff on the cars, taking aero away, hiding aero or doing this or doing that.’ I think that the team owners don’t want to change the cars because it’s going to cost them a lot of money so I don’t know I think it’s just a tricky situation right now." [6:20]

Kyle Larson acknowledged that starting with tires will be the easiest because it doesn't affect the teams' finances significantly. Having said that, the Hendrick Motorsports driver claimed that it's not just tires that would fix the problem.

"Sure, they can definitely come up with tires that can help, not every race is going to be a great a race. I think we just have to come to grips with that. And sure, we want every race to be super exciting but not every football game is exciting, whatever sport you’re going to watch, you’re going to have some blowouts every now and then, that’s just how it is sometimes, but I don’t know, it’s tough," Larson added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suggests NASCAR is running out of time to save the short tracks

After the lackluster race at Bristol, which Kyle Larson won, Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a grim prediction for the future of short tracks in NASCAR. It's worth mentioning that short tracks hold a foundational spot in the history of the sport.

But in the Next Gen era, the short tracks have taken a backseat to road courses and more recently, even street courses.

So considering the racing product on iconic racetracks like Bristol which has produced several memorable races, Dale Jr. said that time is running out for NASCAR to fix the short-track racing.

"I do not see short track racing surviving this if they don't find some solution. It's not out of the question to think that, you know, in just a few years, the Martinsvilles and the Bristols are going to be really hanging on."

Earnhardt mentioned that not long ago, fans and the world of NASCAR were "begging for more short tracks," to the point where the hashtag was a trending topic on social media. But now, the situation is dire, and no one wants a short track on the schedule because of the racing.

This, for the NASCAR legend, was "a travesty."