Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently invited NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell to his podcast, where the latter explained exactly why the NextGen car was born. This happened only days after NASCAR announced that it would boost the Cup Series horsepower to 750 on select tracks in 2026.Since its debut in the NASCAR Cup Series back in 2022, the NextGen car has been running on a baseline 670 HP. Now, NASCAR confirmed new horsepower engines for road courses and all tracks under 1.5 miles. Off-season tests will be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway, following which the field will be set for the increased horsepower.Why did they even need to replace the Gen-6 car in the first place? Weighing in on the matter, O’Donnell told Dale Earnhardt Jr.,“As I was in the competition space, ownership... impossible to keep going. We were going down a path of destruction. Every owner was a car parts manufacturer. Every part and piece. And they were spending money on things that didn't make the racing better, and ultimately said-You've got to save us from ourselves.”O’Donnell further explained that there were no new owners coming into the sport at the time, costs were going up, and the sport was going down a path where only two or three drivers won every race. That’s definitely not what the sport wanted.“So the idea around the NextGen car was, can we come up with a model that brings the cost down, brings some new ownership, and shores up the current owners to at least make it where you have a viable pathway to go forward,” O’Donnell added.For now, all eyes are set on the inaugural Round of 8 event, the South Point 400, scheduled for this coming Sunday, October 12. Fans can watch the event live on USA (5:30 pm ET onwards), or listen to its exclusive radio coverage on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.Dale Earnhardt Jr. says current playoff format is the “most difficult way” to win a NASCAR championshipDuring his conversation with Steve O’Donnell on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, Dale Earnhardt Jr. suggested that the current elimination-style playoffs format is not the easiest to survive. Well, he prefers a season-long, 36-race format."The way we do it today is the hardest, most difficult way to win a championship,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. told O’Donnell. “To put four guys on the track and you only have one race, and it has to go right, the odds are against you in this format more so than any other, in my opinion.”However, that doesn’t take away the credit from the likes of former Cup Series champions like Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Larson, Earnhardt said.“Do I prefer another way? Yes, but it doesn’t mean that championship that they got and that trophy they got in their house isn’t as valuable or as neat or as cool or as appreciated as any trophy or championship that was won in the first 50 years of the sport,” the Hall of Famer further explained.Today, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is regarded as one of the top connoisseurs of the sport. He is a two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion himself. Dale Jr. retired from formal racing at the end of the 2017 season but has returned for annual one-off appearances with JR Motorsports, a team he owned alongside his sister Kelly Earnhardt Miller and Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports.