NASCAR Insider deems Next Gen era’s competitiveness “a good thing”

NASCAR Insider, Jordan Bianchi, recently went on his podcast, The Teardown, co-hosted by another NASCAR veteran journalist, Jeff Gluck and discussed the competitiveness of the Next-Gen Car. He compared the competitiveness with the “heyday of NASCAR” and said the disparity between the big teams and small teams is now more even.

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway was highly competitive and eventful, which featured multiple lead changes, late race drama and an overtime finish to round it off. Joey Logano secured the win after overtaking Michael McDowell in the closing laps and then held off Ross Chastain by just 0.346 seconds in overtime. The top five were separated by just two seconds.

Jordan Bianchi for the Teardown said:

"When you look at the heyday of NASCAR, you had a lot of cars that sucked. You had a lot of slow cars, so you had a lot of traffic to work through. The discrepancy between the big guys and the small guys was so big. You're this big gulf, like you were going to get side-by-side action. You were going to get all of these things. So you throw in, you know, different rules like stage break, lucky dogs and wave-arounds and all of these things of like adding more people back on the lead lap."

"It's just, it's trying to make it as competitive and even across the board as possible. And that is a good thing on a lot of fronts, but it also, for the points you laid out, can be a challenge as well," he added.

Jordan Bianchi is a veteran NASCAR journalist specialising mainly in motorsports, including IndyCar for The Athletic. Bianchi’s journalism spans over a wide range of sports, including the NBA, NFL, MLB, college basketball and college football. In addition to his written work, Bianchi maintains an active social media presence where he shares breaking news, schedule leaks and real-time race analysis with fans and industry professionals.

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NASCAR Insiders applaud Austin Cindric following his Talladega win

Austin Cindric’s victory at Talladega Superspeedway marked his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and the third of his career, delivering Team Penske its first triumph of the year. NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi, speaking on his podcast "The Teardown" with Jeff Gluck, praised Cindric’s performance and noted that the race felt like an old-school superspeedway event, filled with strategic moves and a chess match-like atmosphere.

"You and I have had this conversation about this car, skill level, and that was a popular topic this weekend. But we got a driver in Austin Cindric who is good in these races. Say what you will but he is typically good in the Next Gen era in these races and it's not a coincidence that he was up there again today." [4:25].

Bianchi pointed out that while many drivers and teams, including Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, were in promising positions, miscues took them out of contention, highlighting the importance of both skill and strategy at Talladega.