{
  "id": 18019883,
  "title": "NASCAR making progress with short track show but drivers still want more",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/03/nascar-making-progress-with-short-track-show-but-drivers-still-want",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-03T21:00:46.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Motorsport.com",
    "slug": "motorsport-com",
    "url": "https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/nascar-making-progress-with-short-track-show-but-drivers-still-want-more/10871382/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "NASCAR has made notable strides in short track racing with the new NextGen car, particularly at Martinsville Speedway, but drivers still crave more. The five-year-old car, with its sealed underbody, wider profile tires, and rear diffuser, bears closer resemblance to an IndyCar than its predecessors. This has altered drivers' approach to tight tracks like Martinsville, where tire management plays a crucial role in race outcomes.\n\nChase Elliott is optimistic about the car's performance, crediting tires for significant improvements in recent races. He believes longer stage lengths during the final stage of a race can lead to more thrilling events as drivers attempt to make up time on pit stops. However, Elliott acknowledges that the NextGen car struggles to allow drivers to get close enough to execute a bump-and-run maneuver, a tactic that was more common under the Gen6 package.\n\nDenny Hamlin echoes Elliott's sentiments, stating that the NextGen car has improved from 2022 but believes parity among the cars limits overtaking opportunities. He emphasizes that to overtake a competitor at Martinsville, a driver must be about two-tenths faster per lap than the car ahead. Hamlin also calls for a redesign of the car's gearing structure to enable greater variation in tire wear and racing styles, but acknowledges that such changes may be challenging to implement.",
  "summary": "Despite a great deal of progress over the past four years, the NextGen car remains a work in progress regarding how it races on short tracks and specifically one like Martinsville Speedway. With each Goodyear tire softening effort, aerodynamic tweak or horsepower increase, the Sanctioning Body is still trying to reproduce something similar to what the Gen6 produced or even the O’Reilly Series ...…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}