Fan's Eye View ~ The Jury Is Still Out On The Generation Six Car
3/19/2013
Jim Fitzgerald
“I’m still not a big fan of these things,” Busch said. “I can’t stand to drive them…they suck.”
Over the years, NASCAR made multiple changes to the racecar, such as the moving the front splitter and replacing the rear wing with the old blade-style spoiler, and it became more race-able. But then they decided to scrap it, and developed the new Generation Six car.
Generation Six. The car was named as such because in the eyes of NASCAR, it is the sixth different type of racecar. We had the old “run what you brung”type, if you can picture the Hudson Hornet and Ford Galaxies from the inception of NASCAR through 1966, and then there were the bigger performance cars from the 60’s and 70’s, like Richard Petty’s classic STP Dodge Charger, small square rear passenger windowed Chevy Monte Carlo. After that, in the 80’s, there were the downsized versions of the car, such as Bill Elliott’s Melling/Coors Ford Thunderbird, and the bubble rear window Pontiac Grand Prix Neil Bonnett drove. This was also the first time we saw the black No. 3 hit the track. The fourth generation spanned about fourteen years, and included cars such as Alan Kulwicki’sChampionship winning “Underbird,” and Jeff Gordon’s ultra-successful “Booger,” not to mention the return of Dodge to the sport. The fifth generation started with the safer but un-Kyle Busch approved Car of Tomorrow in 2007, and finished up with Brad Keselowski’s Dodge Charger last season.
The Generation Six car features a return to identifiable branding, something the fans have wanted for years. A Ford looks like a Ford, and a Chevrolet looks like a Chevrolet. When it made the official debut at Daytona in February, we got a solid look at the appearance of it, but not so much on the performance. After all, it’s Daytona. Then we went to Phoenix, and the outcry from the fans was loud. “Nothing has changed, the racing is boring, there’s no passing, et cetera, et cetera…” Then the racing went to Las Vegas, and we saw a record for green flag lead changes, and all was right with the world again. Finally, this past weekend, it was all shamrocks, rainbows, and pots of gold as we had a great race at Bristol, and for two weeks, the unthinkable has been true; the fans were happy.
What do the drivers think of the car? Sitting at the top of the points standings with four top five finishes to start the season, Brad Keselowski feels like he and his team have what is needed to make the car perform each week.
“Sure. I feel like we do. Obviously we're off to my best start ever. That's really cool. I'm happy for my team,”Keselowski said. “I think we know as a team what we need. There's a question as to what we need as a sport. But I think we got a pretty good handle on it with the 2 team. Obviously we can't keep our feet still. We know that Kyle (Busch) and Jimmie (Johnson) are going to continue to make their cars better. We have to keep digging and push on our stuff, too. I think we got a pretty good feel on the 2 team.”
We are now four races into the 2013 season, and have raced the new car on four very unique and different types of tracks, with varied results. Are we ready to make a decision on the new car and whether or not it is a success?
Absolutely not. There are still too many variables involved, such as tweaks to be made and tracks not yet visited. The question should be brought up again once the car has been to each race track at least once. Since the circuit only hits Homestead once per year, at the final event of the season, the new Generation Six car should be given at least that much time before it is evaluated. It is far too early to make any kind of informed determination, and to try to do so would at this point would be unfair to the sport, the drivers, and the teams.
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