The Next Gen car was initially supposed to debut in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021, but that ended up being pushed back to 2022 due to the impact that the pandemic-related restrictions had on the 2020 calendar.
But during the 2020 season, NASCAR experimented with number placement on the cars.
During the All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, which was relocated from its usual Charlotte Motor Speedway home, they debuted a new look on the Gen 6 machines, with the car numbers moved toward the rear of each car, giving sponsors more room to play with for advertising.
Generally speaking, it seems fair to say that NASCAR fans are fairly resistant to change, no matter the circumstances.
So after this race, there were naturally calls for NASCAR to abandon the "hideous" change and keep the numbers where they had always been.
But during the 2021 season, it was confirmed that a change would be made, albeit in a different way. Beginning with the debut of the Gen 7 car in 2022, the car numbers would be moved forward, prompting the expected outrage from the NASCAR community and even the usual threats from fans that they'd "quit watching".
Nearly four years into the new look, it seems that the fans have adapted, at least to the point of contentment.
Maybe it's because I don't check social media nearly as much as I once did, but it seems that, in general, fans have sort of calmed down about this particular change, and the threats of no longer watching the sport over something as trivial as this were nothing more than threats.
And all things considered, it seems that the change has done more good than harm, specifically in terms of the extra blank space it gives sponsors to advertise and go all-in on unique race car designs.
Without having a number in the middle of the door to work around, we have seen that added business benefit almost every week in some unique way, shape, or form since the 2022 season began.