Richard Petty once said, “You don’t learn racing from a book.” The seven-time Cup champion believed that experience, instinct, and raw talent separated the greats from the rest. For decades, NASCAR drivers had to figure out the nuances of racing through trial and error, mentorship, and sheer seat time. But in 2018, NASCAR made a radical shift—one that went against everything Petty and the sport’s veterans had stood for.
In a controversial move, the sport decided to share teams’ real-time driving data with all competitors. The goal was simple: to level the playing field. But for veteran drivers like Kyle Busch, it was nothing short of a betrayal. Busch, who had spent over a decade mastering his craft, was livid. “I’ve spent 13 years in this sport figuring out how to make a car go fast. And now you’re just handing that knowledge to young drivers on a piece of paper?” he ranted in 2018.
The decision sparked an immediate backlash from experienced racers, who feared it would erase the natural gap between veterans and rookies. Fast forward to today, and those concerns have come full circle. NASCAR legend Mark Martin has now echoed Busch’s frustrations. The Hall of Famer sees the current state of the sport as a direct result of NASCAR’s obsession with entertainment over competition.
With NASCAR’s Next Gen car, every vehicle on the grid is nearly identical. Races are decided by who can make the most aggressive—or reckless—move. This shift was on full display last week at Martinsville. In the Xfinity Series race, Sammy Smith took desperation to a new level. On the final lap, he sent Taylor Gray spinning, triggering a chaotic wreck right at the finish line.
Mark Martin has seen enough. On the latest episode of Door Bumper Clear, he ripped into NASCAR’s decision to share data, calling it a disaster for competition. “I’m so dumb. I had to learn what I was doing ’cause I didn’t even know what I was doing. But yeah, I hate that… What NASCAR is going for now is entertainment. It may be entertaining to see cars running side by side, but with this parity, a 20th-place car that gets out in front might lead to the next pit stop. That’s not what I want to see. I want to see someone dominate, stumble, and then fight their way back to the front,” Martin said.
NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Sep 18, 2021 Bristol, Tennessee, USA NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliott 9 and driver Kevin Harvick 4 compete during the race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports, 18.09.2021 22:43:23, 16783977, Nascar, Bristol Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRandyxSartinx 16783977
The numbers back him up. The Next-Gen car, combined with NASCAR’s data-sharing policy, has created a sport where the entire field often runs within tenths of each other. The ability to pass has become harder, and veteran dominance has faded. In the past, elite drivers found unique ways to separate themselves. Now, thanks to live SMT data, everyone knows the fastest way around the track. But how does this system work?
Every Cup car is equipped with a GPS unit and an Engine Control Unit (ECU). NASCAR limits teams to 200 data channels, but four key metrics—steering angle, throttle, brake, and speed—are shared with every competitor. Earlier, teams used to scrape this data from RaceView, a platform launched for fans in 2017, but NASCAR decided to eliminate that arms race by making it available to everyone. The goal was to save money. The result? A field of drivers who race nearly identically.
Not surprisingly, NASCAR’s decision has divided the garage. Kyle Busch was among the first to call it out, comparing it to an NFL team handing over its playbook to opponents. Some other drivers, like Kurt Busch, also agreed, arguing that it eliminates the human element from the sport. Even Denny Hamlin agrees, as he explained on the new episode of Actions Detrimental, “I used to say that winning 10-12 years ago, when I was racing, Jimmy and Jeff was so much easier than what it is now. A lot of it is because our technique was just better than everyone else’s, and I saw it when I was driving around everyone else. We would approach the racetrack a little differently and um you know obviously the minute, kind of, SMT came out and all of our proprietary information and data, all the drivers got to see it they got to see what these guys were doing and then we’ve just morphed our style into that, into where everyone’s driving really similar now and they’re all driving really similar cars.”
But drivers like Martin Truex Jr. found it helpful. “Back in the day, it was all a big mystery. You had to figure it out. Now, you can see all of it,” he had said. Apart from him, some younger drivers and smaller teams also welcome the change, seeing it as an equalizer. But as Mark Martin pointed out, that “competitiveness” comes at the cost of individuality. And nowhere is that more evident than in the chaos of the Xfinity Series. Now, he’s also weighed in on the chaos brewing in the Xfinity Series.
Martin blames NASCAR for the Xfinity mayhem!
Mark Martin has seen plenty of aggressive racing in his career. But what’s happening in the NASCAR Xfinity Series right now? It’s a disaster. After Sammy Smith’s reckless last-lap move at Martinsville, the NASCAR community erupted in criticism. Drivers like Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell called out the lack of respect among young competitors. But Martin took a different angle—he blamed NASCAR itself.
“It’s a damn shame NASCAR has been put in this situation. They shouldn’t have to police this,” Martin wrote on social media. He argued that the sport has backed itself into a corner. If officials crack down on reckless driving, they’ll be accused of micromanaging. If they don’t, chaos reigns. Veterans like Brad Keselowski believe the responsibility lies with team owners. He urged them to bench drivers who refuse to race with respect.
“My 2 cents- The solution needs to come from the car owners, not NASCAR. Until the car owners are willing to park their drivers to get this out of control, very little will change. I get that they are all scared to park a funded driver out of fear they will lose the money to continue operations. However, at some point, that’s the risk you have to take to get this right. I believe if all of the teams do it together, it would work,” Keselowski tweeted.
But will that change anything? The younger generation of NASCAR drivers has been raised in an era where aggressive, win-at-all-costs racing is encouraged. That’s why the Xfinity Series has turned into a demolition derby. So, where does NASCAR go from here? If history tells us anything, it’s that racing needs its heroes and villains. But it should come with some certain policing.
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