Kyle Larson says Cup Series racing would still be good with O’Reilly Series cars, but the finishes would change. The Hendrick Motorsports driver discussed it on Stacking Pennies with Corey LaJoie and Ryan Flores.
The O’Reilly Series still races a car based on the old Gen-6 design. Close finishes in that series have led to calls for the Cup Series to bring that car back. LaJoie asked Larson what Cup racing would look like with it.
“Well, I think it would, I think it would still be great racing, like you see on Saturdays. I think it would be less crazy finishes and all that, because you’re going to have, as you mentioned, drivers making less mistakes.”
Larson said the deeper Cup field would change how races play out.
“You’re going to have 26 good cars out there rather than 10. So yeah, there’s going to be like less coming and going.”
The Next Gen car replaced the Gen-6 car in the Cup Series in 2022. Larson won the 2021 title in the final season of the Gen-6 car. He said Cup races with the O’Reilly car would resemble that era.
“It’s going to look like the Gen-6 Cup racing did at the end in ’21, I think. Slightly better because you can kind of pack air a little bit easier, but very similar to that style of racing.”
Larson admitted he enjoys watching O’Reilly races.
“It’s fun to watch and yeah, I definitely wish our races could look like that sometimes, but it is what it is.”
The debate picked up after Corey Day beat Carson Kvapil in a close finish at Las Vegas on Saturday. MotorBiscuit has the full results. Kenny Wallace has said NASCAR will not go back to the older car.
Larson said he does not have a problem with the Next Gen car itself. He said the challenge is finding speed when every car is so similar.
“We have the Next Gen car, and you have to figure out how to do it better than others. It’s hard.”
He also described how the two cars feel from the seat.
“And I think a Next Gen car is harder to drive. Because you’re on the edge and you’re carrying so much speed all the time. And the cars are just twitchy.”
Larson said the O’Reilly car is nicer to drive when coming off the throttle. MotorBiscuit has a breakdown of the differences between the two cars.
“You’re not on the edge as much.”
Larson leads the NASCAR Chase standings by 40 points with five races left. The motorsports series races next at Charlotte on Sunday, Oct. 11.