{"id":122364,"date":"2025-08-06T01:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/122364\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T01:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:34:09","slug":"kevin-harvick-left-annoyed-by-nascars-obsession-with-tech-data-in-next-gen-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/122364\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Harvick Left Annoyed by NASCAR’s Obsession With Tech & Data in Next-Gen Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR\u2019s gone high-tech, but not everyone\u2019s thrilled about it. The Next-Gen era, with its spec cars and real-time SMT data, has turned racing into something closer to a video game than the raw, seat-of-the-pants battles of old.<\/p>\n

Take the 2023 Southern 500 at Darlington. Ross Chastain found a killer wide line into Turn 3, but within a stage, Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell were copying it, thanks to SMT data feeding teams\u2019 simulators. At the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, Austin Cindric\u2019s engineer told him to mimic Chase Elliott\u2019s throttle trace into Turn 1, and Cindric later admitted he barely understood what his car was doing. He just trusted the data.<\/p>\n

Short tracks like Martinsville and Richmond, once hotbeds for gritty racing, have suffered most. The 2023 Martinsville spring race saw just two green-flag passes for the lead, with everyone running identical lines and lap times, courtesy of spec parts and data-driven setups. Kevin Harvick, never one to bite his tongue, is fed up with this tech overload and let loose on his podcast, calling out how it\u2019s flattening NASCAR\u2019s soul.<\/p>\n

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Harvick lays bare what makes today\u2019s races monotonous<\/p>\n

On the latest episode of Kevin Harvick\u2019s Happy Hour,<\/a> co-host Mamba Smith kicked things off, noting how drivers used to be the main data point, explaining their car\u2019s feel to guide setups.<\/p>\n

Harvick quickly jumped in saying, \u201cYou have to be willing to be critiqued all the time because the data is live. Because the data is live, they know what you\u2019re doing. If they\u2019re telling you that you\u2019re using too much brake, you\u2019re using too much brake. And you know you can have a reason, but they can tell you why you\u2019re going slower. I don\u2019t necessarily like that. I almost think that they should take some of that away during the race. I think it\u2019s great to look at all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The veteran\u2019s gripe is with real-time telemetry, which tracks brake pressure, throttle, and steering angle, letting engineers micromanage drivers mid-race. Unlike the days of Dale Earnhardt Sr. or Tony Stewart<\/a>, when feel drove decisions, today\u2019s teams see everything instantly. If a driver\u2019s braking too hard, like Cindric at the Coca-Cola 600, they\u2019re coached on the spot, stripping away the instinct that defined racing\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick kept it real, \u201cI think it\u2019s great for the fans to see it, but it\u2019s really difficult to try to figure out how to take it away when the fans can see it and everybody else can see it. But I think it is definitely a hurt. You know the advantage because it just makes everybody be able to be equal. And I hate it as a driver, the weekend, and be able to say I\u2019m better at doing this because I\u2019m just better than you. And figure, or if you figure something out, then everybody figures it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Next-Gen car\u2019s spec chassis and SMT data, shared across teams and shown on TV, kill any edge a driver might find. Chastain\u2019s Darlington line was copied in a stage because everyone saw his data. In the past, drivers like Jimmie Johnson could own a track for a weekend with a unique approach. Now, innovation gets replicated instantly. That leaves races like Martinsville\u2019s 2023 snoozefest, where identical setups led to just two lead passes.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t stop there, saying \u201cSo if somebody goes up in the top and Kyle Larson is two inches from the wall and how he\u2019s using the throttle. Next thing you know Tyler Reddick\u2019s doing the same thing. They\u2019re all up in the same groove. I\u2019ve heard Clint gripe about the data for two years now and he\u2019s right. I mean it just makes everything so damn close that you can\u2019t find an advantage to beat your competitor during your race because all those guys just figure it out immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvick\u2019s pointing to Larson\u2019s rim-riding mastery, a high-risk move that used to set him apart at tracks like Homestead. Now, Reddick and others can mimic it by studying Larson\u2019s throttle traces in real time. Clint Bowyer\u2019s been vocal about this too, lamenting how data erases the secrecy that once let drivers like him carve out an edge. When everyone\u2019s running the same groove, races turn into follow-the-leader. Harvick\u2019s frustration is that the tech makes NASCAR feel less human.<\/p>\n

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Kevin Harvick slams Next-Gen car\u2019s shortcomings<\/p>\n

Harvick\u2019s not just mad about data. He\u2019s got beef with the Next-Gen car itself, especially after the Iowa Corn 350 on August 3. The Cup Series got embarrassed when 17-year-old Brent Crews in the ARCA Menards Series outqualified Chase Briscoe\u2019s Cup pole time. 22.901 seconds to 23.004 seconds.<\/p>\n

Come race day, William Byron<\/a> won from second, but dirty air and low top-end speed made passing nearly impossible. Harvick didn\u2019t sugarcoat it on his podcast, \u201cThe car sucks. It\u2019s not fun to see the car not be able to pass like it needs to be. And it turned into a fuel mileage track position race. That part, I don\u2019t like. It doesn\u2019t seem like we\u2019re making any ground on making it better.\u201d The Next-Gen car\u2019s short-track package, rolled out in 2022, has been a sore spot. Its lack of power turns races like Iowa into stale, position-holding affairs.<\/p>\n

He gave props where due but stayed firm,\u00a0\u201cI think that Goodyear has done a good job in making the tires a little bit better, but definitely need\u2014it wound up being exciting because it was edgy. Cars were hard to drive. The track is rough. The track\u2019s got everything that it needs, but man, it\u2019s tough to watch a fuel mileage race on a short track.\u201d Harvick\u2019s point is that Iowa\u2019s bumps and character should\u2019ve made for a banger. But the car\u2019s sluggishness, exacerbated by low horsepower, killed the action.<\/p>\n

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He pushed for a fix too, saying, \u201cThe Cup cars need to go way faster, especially at the short tracks. And I don\u2019t think there was anything more evident than this weekend. The ARCA car outqualified the Cup car, and it was extremely difficult to pass. The slower you go, the harder it\u2019s going to be to pass. The faster the mid-corner speed is.\u201d He even suggested more horsepower, arguing that short tracks and road courses could handle it. \u201cIn the end, the cars are so damn slow they don\u2019t race good,\u201d Harvick said, summing up why Iowa felt like a missed opportunity for NASCAR\u2019s premier series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR\u2019s gone high-tech, but not everyone\u2019s thrilled about it. The Next-Gen era, with its spec cars and real-time…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6119,52911,52910,1641,5643,52913,5350,52912,1441,463,1638,6123,35391,4691,6122,381,6128,75790,2572,6148,6121,1406,2355,52909,1619,1647,29285,1589,52917,2356,20966,15546,1618,6176,11921,1645,6175,2357,6166,62,448,1648,67,132,68,2969,20175,1646,1640,1615],"class_list":{"0":"post-122364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-6119","9":"tag-52911","10":"tag-4er","11":"tag-am","12":"tag-arizona","13":"tag-arizonas","14":"tag-at","15":"tag-avondale","16":"tag-championship","17":"tag-cup","18":"tag-der","19":"tag-driver","20":"tag-during","21":"tag-editorial","22":"tag-fahrer","23":"tag-for","24":"tag-fur","25":"tag-harvick","26":"tag-kevin","27":"tag-meisterschaft","28":"tag-motorsport","29":"tag-nascar","30":"tag-nascars","31":"tag-nov","32":"tag-npstrans","33":"tag-nur","34":"tag-only","35":"tag-phoenix","36":"tag-phonix","37":"tag-pokal","38":"tag-qualifying","39":"tag-qualifyings","40":"tag-quer","41":"tag-race","42":"tag-raceway","43":"tag-redaktionelle","44":"tag-rennen","45":"tag-serie","46":"tag-series","47":"tag-sports","48":"tag-the","49":"tag-toppic","50":"tag-united-states","51":"tag-unitedstates","52":"tag-us","53":"tag-usa","54":"tag-use","55":"tag-verwendung","56":"tag-wahrend","57":"tag-x0x"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}