In recent weeks, several Cup Series drivers have expressed concerns about safety issues with the Next Gen car during interviews with media members, which typically draws the attention of NASCAR officials as well as fans.
“I think that they’re being proactive right now. Obviously, they made a bunch of changes this week. I think what the drivers and the teams are saying is that it shouldn’t take us yelling through the media to get it done,” Hamlin said.
“That doesn’t help anybody and it certainly doesn’t help them, but the proof has been that yelling through the media typically gets results. That’s just kind of the way that it’s been. This is the most powerful tool you can have and sometimes you have to use it to force change.”
Following a bad fire in his No. 4 Ford in last weekend’s race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Kevin Harvick blasted NASCAR in an interview during the race broadcast.
Harvick had not experienced any issues with his engine prior to the fire nor had suffered any damage to the car during the race.
He tore into NASCAR again during a media availability session Saturday at Kansas Speedway for the slow response in addressing concerns about how the car handles crashes.
This past week, NASCAR mandated several changes to the Next Gen car to address the fire issue. Fires first appeared in the cars of Joey Logano and Chris Buescher during the Indy Road Course weekend in July.
“I think (Harvick) has had enough of them saying they would get to it, they would get to it and we’re working on it. Instead, they made an immediate change,” Hamlin said.
“But we want to see it coming after the second fire, the first fire. There’s been many, many fires before that one.”
Ongoing discussions
Hamlin was among a handful of drivers that met for approximately for two hours with NASCAR officials this past week regarding safety concerns.
He said that he does feel better about conversations he’s had recently with NASCAR even if Harvick remains dissatisfied.
“I certainly feel that they’re working to help us with the hits on the chassis. All that stuff does take time. They can’t just knee-jerk reaction and start cutting bars out of the chassis, that’s very irresponsible,” he said.
“I think they’re doing things methodically to make sure that the next revision of car that comes out is one that is improved in the areas that we need improving on, but that does take time through design and testing.”
