On paper, the NASCAR Cup Series boasts 15 full-time organizations. Now, this makes it look like a seemingly competitive landscape brimming with opportunity. But, if you look beneath that polished surface, it’s the same trio that continues to dictate the pace: Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Team Penske. These powerhouses carry decades of legacy, technical depth, and, most importantly, financial muscle, setting them apart from the rest of the grid.
That imbalance is exactly what NASCAR hopes to address with its ongoing parity push. By tightening rules, standardizing parts, and exploring cost-controlling measures, the sanctioning body aims to level the playing field. All to give smaller teams a fighting chance. Yet, not everyone is convinced that parity can be truly achieved. Dale Earnhardt Jr, in particular, believes the sport’s DNA might be too complex to cap or equalize. Here’s why.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s skepticism
While on one hand, NASCAR is pushing aggressively for parity in the sport, Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes true parity in NASCAR is an illusion, arguing it’s impossible to achieve equal competitiveness for every team. He said on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, “There’s, you know, eight teams that are level or ten teams, right? That everybody that has a charter has an equal opportunity to go win a championship, I just don’t know that you will ever have that. You’re always going to have disparity in talent throughout the entire building,” he said.
He points out that each manufacturer, Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota, already has its own “A team.” For example, Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, and Joe Gibbs Racing. Even if a fourth manufacturer joins (like Dodge in 2026), it will simply add another “A team,” not elevate all charter holders to championship contention.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. insists there will always be a hierarchy determined by differences in talent on the pit box, behind the wheel, and within every staff member, down to the janitor. For him, parity in people and resources is unattainable; there’s a natural disparity that influences outcomes.
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He is also critical of plans to introduce a cost cap, referencing Formula 1’s model to show how easily teams bend the rules. “And there’s this other idea, too, of a cost cap. How do you place that? You can’t do that.” He went on to say, “I believe there’ll be some shady behind-the-scenes things going on, and it’s just going to make it feel ickier and dirtier,” he said.
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And, he is not wrong. We’ve already seen that happen in Formula 1. Teams like Red Bull and Aston Martin have exploited accounting loopholes and gray areas (such as creative interpretations of allowable expense categories) to continue gaining advantages even after the cap’s implementation. These actions prompted both controversy and regulatory tweaks. Thus, Dale Earnhardt Jr. feels that introducing a cost cap will also make NASCAR “ickier and dirtier,” rather than reducing inequality.
Dale Jr. warns NASCAR (and other motorsports) doesn’t need rigid guidelines, arguing that innovation and investment have always fueled the sport’s progress and identity. He believes that authentic performance will always outpace artificial rules, and the pursuit of parity could undermine the natural drama that defines NASCAR’s appeal. “[Motorsports] doesn’t need these guidelines. It just kind of needs to be it. It’s always been about creativity, money buys speed, um, you know, all those things,” he concluded.
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A look at parity in the Next-Gen era
If NASCAR’s goal with the Next-Gen car was to level the playing field, the numbers from the 2025 season certainly make a strong case. A total of thirty-four drivers (thirty-three of them full-time) scored at least one top-five finish, the highest number since 2001. It was one more than last year’s 33 and only the third time since 1972 that the series has seen such a spread of top-tier performances.
The wins were just as evenly distributed. Denny Hamlin led the pack with six victories, while road course sensation Shane van Gisbergen followed with five. Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell also collected four wins each, with 2025 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, and William Byron each grabbing three. NASCAR Insights posted a season recap on X that perfectly summed up the balance across the grid.
Looking back, the 2024 season featured eighteen different race winners. This tied for the third most in the modern era. For comparison, 2022 saw nineteen unique winners, while 2023 had fifteen. Since the Next-Gen car’s introduction, no driver has managed to win more than six races in a single season.
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Contrast that with the pre–Next-Gen years: in 2021, there were sixteen different winners, but Kyle Larson alone took ten checkered flags. And in 2018, just twelve drivers won all year, with Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex Jr. combining for a staggering twenty-two of thirty-six race victories. Over 60% of the season.
So, has the Next-Gen car brought parity? Absolutely! At least in terms of weekly competition. But when it comes to championships, the same powerhouse organizations continue to reign supreme. From 2000 to 2021, every title went to a Tier 1, manufacturer-backed team, with 2017 standing as the lone exception, when Martin Truex Jr. clinched the championship with Furniture Row Racing.