For years, Bristol Motor Speedway has established itself as the benchmark for what real short-track racing should be like. Even racing products today are judged by the Bristol standard. But as Joey Logano revisits that idea, his comments begin to complicate what going “back” would actually mean.
Nostalgia meets engineering limits as Logano breaks down why “old Bristol” cannot simply return
Joey Logano just doesn’t stay attached to the past or move along with the future; he makes a balanced approach. But he makes a quite interesting point as to why the past is impossible to recreate today.
“There was a moment where everyone thought that every car needed to be glued to the bottom like the old Bristol. The only way to pass someone was to knock them out of the way, and that’s what good racing looks like. We have a habit in our sport of always going back and saying, ‘Those were the good old days, those were better than what we have now,’” said Logano.
Bristol is one of the most exciting races of the year, but a lot has changed from the previous years, with cars being the most notable one.
“The bump and run is a lot different. It’s hard for us to get to the back bumper of someone in front of us now with the way the next-gen car is. Hard to even get there,” said Logano. “If everyone’s running the same line and you can’t even get to the guy to move him out of the way, is that better?”
“When we say make things back like they used to be… I don’t know if that’s always right”@joeylogano doesn’t think old Bristol would be better with the Next Gen car. pic.twitter.com/R7lm38O66L
— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) April 9, 2026
He then identifies the second problem, which is even more severe. “Before you kind of lifted him, it didn’t take much to move him.” Now, “you’ve got to knock him out of the way, which is not possible in the way the Next Gen car is designed.” The latter draws immense value because the newer cars, when under contact can have abrupt endings which are less recoverable.
But what changed within the cars themselves to allow for Bristol-style racing to evaporate? Yes, Logano did point it out, but what change was in its engineering design?
From bump-and-run to aero stall: how car design quietly rewrote Bristol’s racing DNA
The change at Bristol is due to an aerodynamic shift within the garage. The Next Generation car introduced a spec chassis, independent rear suspension, wider tires, and, most critically, a fully developed underbody with a rear diffuser. What this has now led to is that the new underbody generates a large part of the car’s grip, making airflow that goes under the car as important as the one that flows over it. In traffic, this creates a sensitivity where disturbed air from the lead car reduces front grip for the trailing car, which in turn obviously would also limit its ability to close the gap.
The consequence, as you have guessed, is that the racing that was the style at Bristol completely breaks down. The older generation car allowed the trailing driver to approach the rear bumper and use subtle contact or aerodynamic “packing” to unsettle the leader. However, the Next Gen Car weakens that interaction.
This has been noted throughout the pit with interesting comments being dropped by crew chief Cliff Daniels that the current car, in any shape, “cannot scoop or pack air” towards the leading car’s bumper in the way that older cars did. This, in turn, skips a quite essential jump step between clean racing and heavy contact racing.
This wasn’t the only change observed. In 2024, NASCAR reduced downforce while simplifying the diffuser to force more tire slip, combined with the fact that by 2026 it increased the horsepower to 750 in attempts of making races interesting through reintroducing throttle sensitivity.
The pattern thereafter becomes pretty clear when tire wear or power creates separation, racing improves, but in those situations where the cars are more or less planted and equal, he who has more control wins. With all that being said, the challenge is massive in these new-gen cars as well. Drivers will have to persevere to get a win, as all the features in the older cars have been taken out to modernize them.
