'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Kevin Harvick, who has been vocal in his criticism of the Next Gen car's safety aspects, recently took to his podcast to highlight the issue once again. This was in the wake of Erik Jones' brutal Talladega wreck, which will see him miss the upcoming Dover race because of a spinal fracture.
Speaking about the Next Gen car, the former NASCAR driver explained on Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour that unlike the old Gen 6 car, the new cars react differently in a wreck situation. He believes it is because of this that the drivers bear most of the force of a hit and that needs to be worked on.
"The old car had a ramp-up process that is pretty flat ... The slope of the impact is absorbed by the car. This car, basically when you hit something now, it happens so fast, like in a whiplash situation, it happens a lot faster, because a lot of that impact is going through your body because the whip is whipped faster, is I guess one way to explain it," Harvick said. [22:25]
"It just becomes much more violent for the driver. Definitely still have a lot of work to do with this car to put these drivers in a better position to absorb these impacts. Obviously, he's hurt and they're planning for some catastrophic impact, but definitely some work to do."
Kevin Harvick urged NASCAR to be "super quick" in solving Next Gen problems back in 2022
After the Next Gen car attracted a lot of criticism in its debut year for being unsafe for the drivers, Kevin Harvick commented about the work it needed. Harvick himself was part of an incident when his racecar caught fire at Darlington in 2022.
He claimed that the safety of the Next Gen car "cannot be slow," and explained what a driver feels in a situation of a wreck inside the cockpit.
"This car is screwed up as far as the way that it crashes. And whether the data says it or not, every driver in this garage will tell you that's not right, and it hurts — feet hurt, hands hurt, head hurt," Harvick said as per USA Network.
"And there has to be a better solution. When we want to solve problems, we can solve them quick, super quick."
These comments from Kevin Harvick were made back in 2022. In 2024, NASCAR seems to have made some progress in improving the safety aspect of the Next Gen car, but the Erik Jones incident has proved that there is work to be done.
