NASCAR insider delivers epic rant on teams' refusal to spend money after All-Star Race proposal declined

NASCAR tried to introduce a “Run What You Brung” format into the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro on May 18. It sounded like an incredible concept, but the drivers and their teams told the decision-makers no, rejecting the idea.

Amid all the complaining about the Next Gen car, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic saw the format as a chance to find a fix for the subpar racing the car has delivered since its inception. He ripped NASCAR’s best and brightest a new one for denying the format in a passionate rant, believing they ruined a chance to move the sport forward into a better future.

“Man, teams, I think you are a bunch of assholes, honestly,” Gluck stated, via The Teardown. “You are a bunch of assholes, seriously. Stop crying about the freaking money. Will you stop it? Will you listen to yourselves? All you do is complain about the car. ‘They won’t let us do anything with this car. Why won’t they let us do anything with the car? It’s a spec car. It’s a Temu car. I got this car at Target. I have to do everything that they want us to do. They won’t let me do anything.’

“Then they say, ‘Oh, okay, you know what? Here’s the race — we’ll let you do whatever you want. Maybe this will actually help us fix the stupid car, because we’ll get some ideas and we’ll go, Oh, wow, that’s a good [idea]. Hey, that’s cool. What did you do with that? How did you get that car to race really well? That’s cool.’

“And they’re like, ‘No, oh my God, that would cost us a lot of money. We can’t do that. Are you crazy? We can’t spend the money on the All-Star race. We’re not getting paid enough for that. Why would we do that?’ You are assholes. Shut up. God. Pissed me off. That’s so stupid.

“You care about the sport? That really sucks. That really sucks. Stop talking about the freaking money. Will you stop it? You know how much money there is in this stupid sport? Why? Why is everything about cost-cutting? Oh my God. Stop it. I’m like shaking. I’m so mad right now. I mean, I’m like — my hands are shaking. I’m very upset about this. This is so stupid.”

It isn’t difficult to see why Jeff Gluck was so hot about teams rejecting one of NASCAR’s more interesting ideas. They’re few and far between, and the fact that it was denied makes his blood boil.

Fans and media members alike would’ve certainly liked to see what teams came up with for North Wilkesboro, but it’ll be the same-old-same-old at North Wilkesboro at the All-Star Race. The blowback has been loud, but teams aren’t changing their stance on the matter, regardless of how angry many are with the development.