There is a lot of respect between Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt Jr. but they ultimately are not going to see eye-to-eye on the current state of NASCAR Cup Series racing right now.
It started last week after a frustrating to watch race at Iowa Speedway when Earnhardt said the car doesn’t deliver the way it should on a de facto short track like the one outside of Des Moines.
“I want to say that I don’t love the Next Gen car, but it’s here. I don’t love the NextGen car…. It’s an IMSA car. It’s a sports car. It’s got a diffuser. It’s got low-profile tires, it’s got big rims and big brakes. It’s a sports car. It’s not a NASCAR stock car, but it’s here.”
Kyle Petty, a longtime NASCAR Cup Series racer turned TV analyst and son of seven-time champion Richard Petty, challenged Earnhardt on his takeaway.
The NASCAR Next Gen car is a huge leap forward, so let’s embrace the change! Why cling to antiquated tech when the racing is only getting better? “We’re seeing some spectacular stuff.” #NASCAR #NextGenCar pic.twitter.com/NFdRDp65JA
— PRN (@PRNlive) August 11, 2025
“We had one of our prominent members of the NASCAR community, Dale Jr., criticize the Next Gen car the other day. I don’t think that criticism is deserved in a lot of ways,” Petty said. “We have not raced stock cars since about 1958. We don’t race stock cars, we race NASCARs. This is the NASCAR car that we have today. People complained in the 70s when they went to tubular chassis. They complained when we went to radial tires. They’ve complained all along as the progression of the cars.
“We were still racing cars with carburetors when you couldn’t go to your local auto parts store and buy a carburetor. It was an antiquated car that we were racing and people seemed to want to have that antiquated car. This car jumped leap years ahead. We have to adjust to it. This is the racing we have. We have to embrace it, enjoy it, we’re seeing some spectacular stuff on the racetrack and I think it’s only going to get better.”
That isn’t exactly the popular opinion right now with 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, now a FOX Sports analyst, saying bluntly that ‘the car sucks’ and Earnhardt offered a response this week on his Dale Jr Download podcast.
“I really, really respect Kyle, I think the world of him, and I appreciate his opinion,” Earnhardt said. “But I would just disagree that the car doesn’t produce what I expect.”
“Again, going back 75 years, I know Kyle’s been around a long time, the car doesn’t produce the kind of racing that I know we are capable of at road courses and short tracks,” Earnhardt said. “The car does not produce the type of racing that I think should be our standard, and I know what we’re capable of at road courses and short tracks; and I would not stop at trying to achieve fucking amazing great racing at those style tracks.”
