CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the last two years, NASCAR officials have pushed the idea that the Next Gen race car would allow more parity among NASCAR Cup Series teams and drivers.
On Sunday at Auto Club Speedway, that parity was on display.
Nine teams were represented among the top-10 finishers in Sunday’s Wise Power 400, with Stewart-Haas Racing the only organization placing two cars in the top-10. Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick finished sixth and seventh, respectively, for the team co-owned by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas.
Others in the top 10 were Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Petty GMS Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing, Team Penske, 23XI Racing, Kaulig Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing.
The race featured nine different leaders and a whopping 32 lead changes. That number only counts lead changes at the start/finish line.
The usual suspects — Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano —weren’t in contention for much of the day.
Instead, it was drivers such as Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Petty GMS Motorsports’ Erik Jones and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe, who spent most of the afternoon near the front of the field.
Larson ended up winning the race after a strong run late, but he had to fight with Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez during the final restart with four laps left. Suarez took the lead from Larson with three laps left, only to see Larson regain the spot later on the same lap.
“We’re going to win a few races very soon here,” Suarez said after finishing fourth. “We had a fast car, but we went through a lot of adversity. We had a few issues. We hit the wall once. We had an issue with a diffuser.
“My pit crew, those guys are legends; it’s unbelievable. It’s the best pit crew I’ve ever had and it’s a lot of fun to race like that.”
For much of the day, it appeared the race would belong to Reddick. He led a race-high 90 laps, more than he’d led in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career prior to Sunday, but was taken out of contention by a flat tire and subsequent crash on lap 153.
Despite the disappointment, Reddick found solace in his team’s performance at the two-mile oval located in Fontana, Calif.
“Absolutely gutted by how our race unfolded but I couldn’t be prouder of this whole team and what we were able to do a majority of this race today,” Reddick said. “We will learn from this; we will become stronger from this and be hungrier than ever before.”
Jones was a threat to win throughout most of Sunday’s race. He led the first 10 laps after qualifying second. Jones finished third, behind Larson and runner-up Austin Dillon.
It was the first top-five finish for a car owned by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty since Bubba Wallace finished fifth at Daytona Int’l Speedway in 2020. While it was a strong result for Jones and company, he couldn’t help but feel frustrated.
“It’s awesome, but it’s frustrating, too,” Jones said. “You’re that close and you have a car that you feel like can do it. The No. 43 FOCUSFactor Chevrolet definitely had it today. It was a matter of getting up front and taking advantage of clean air and we did that a couple of times. A couple restarts just didn’t go our way.
“I probably could have done a better job here and there and it just didn’t add up. I just haven’t raced up front a lot in the last year and a half. There are some things I need to be better at. Hopefully, I have a lot of time to work on that. We want to keep running upfront and if we keep doing that, we’re going to win some races.”
Another impressive performance came from Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric. Making select Cup Series starts for the team this year, Hemric qualified in the top five but fell six laps down early in the race due to a problem with his shifter.
Hemric put in a yeoman’s effort and after taking advantage of the lucky dog rule and getting the wave around several times, he finished on the lead lap in the ninth position.
“I felt like we had a really good car and we were able to maintain good speed and move forward,” Hemric said. “Unfortunately, we had an issue with our shifter and lost six laps. I can’t believe we got all of them back and were even able to contend there at the end.”
While none of these drivers won Sunday’s race, their performances showed that the Next Gen car could be living up to its billing as an equalizer that will allow underfunded teams and drivers to compete with teams such as Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing.
With 34 races remaining this year, only time will tell if Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway was a fluke or a sign of things to come.