Mark Martin has never shied away from giving his criticism over the years on the changing dynamics of NASCAR. And after the 2026 Daytona 500, it wasn’t any different.

"My point was, this doesn't look good to the world. Not just to me, but to the world, this doesn't look good, and it didn't. I'm sorry, it didn't.” Now this criticism wasn’t a surprise.

On the race day, Martin took to X and expressed his disappointment with a blunt verdict: "This is not a good look."

The frustration comes from the fuel-saving tactics that dominate the final bit of the race. Instead of pushing all-out, drivers in front of the pack go half-throttle to save fuel. But that's not all. It also saves valuable time in the pitstops. And that’s what we saw at the Daytona 500.

Up until the final twenty laps, the grid remained locked into position with the leading cars dictating the pace with their fuel-saving strategies. And there was good reason for that. With the Next-Gen car’s aero design, the leading car takes a big chunk of the drag. So they level the playing field with the cars behind by easing off the throttle. And that’s why Martin said:

"But I don't have a solution for it, and we wound up having a good race, so, uh, all in all, I wish we could; I wish we could figure something out. I saw some drivers after the race say that we have to fix that, and I think Blaney said it, you know, 'We have to fix it, boy.”

However, a Potential Solution Is Emerging From the Drivers Themselves

Hamlin delivered a pointed superspeedway reform on his Actions Detrimental podcast. Zeroing in on restrictor plates that were replaced post-2019, Hamlin pinpointed them as the root of fuel-saving woes.

"Generally speaking, these cars are just too planted into the racetrack. We have these big spoilers because we’re running more horsepower," he said on his podcast.

He proposed cutting horsepower and aerodynamic drag to restore handling-based racing, insisting, “You’re going to have to increase the speeds by a lot… you’re going to have to make it to where handling matters.”

Hamlin's blueprint demands collaborative testing: “Let a few of us come up with a package that we think you won’t see any fuel savings."

You can read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Kaamna Dwivedi

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar