NASCAR Engine Builder Says Hike to 750HP ‘Wouldn’t Be Much of a Change’

For months, maybe even years, fans, drivers, team owners, and industry members have been calling on NASCAR executives to add horsepower to the NASCAR Cup Series short track package, to improve the racing.

But the main question has become: How difficult would it be to increase horsepower?

Doug Yates, CEO of Roush-Yates Engines (the primary engine-builder for Ford Performance teams in the NASCAR Cup Series), weighed in on the matter during a radio spot with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 on Wednesday, where he discussed the intricacies of the engine-building process, and what an increase of horsepower would entail.

“If we were to increase the power from 670 horsepower to about 750 horsepower, that probably wouldn’t be much of a change for us today,” Yates explained. “But, to go back to those 900 horsepower engines, that would be quite the project and would definitely decrease the life of the engine.”

While Yates says that John Probst and NASCAR have a “tough job” as they attempt to improve the overall product with the NextGen car on short tracks, the member of the iconic Yates NASCAR family says he’d love to see them remain open-minded about horsepower changes.

“They want to be open-minded about those things, but the balance is, being open-minded and not driving the cost back to where it was before,” he added. “So, not an easy job, but I would like to sese them be open-minded and try some things and it’d be nice to see what that looked like, especially on short tracks.”

While 750 horsepower may be a semi-realistic jump according to Yates, the jump from the current 670 horsepower to the 900-horsepower package that the NASCAR Cup Series used to run, would likely require a complete overhaul of the current engine program.

“There’s a lot to it because right now, if you know every single detail, this engine is refined to make the most power for the rules we’re racing, whether that’s 510 or 670. So, we would have to go back through all of those things, to achieve 900. It’s not hard to do, it’s just, once you go there, it’s probably going to decrease the life of the engines and that’s a difference scenario or situation from our engine builders, as well as the economics of the engine side of business.”

During his time with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Yates also discussed the proposed ‘Run What Ya Brung’ concept for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in May, which was ultimately denied by teams due to potential costs.

“They were on those calls in the technical side and it was more of a car change and allowing the teams to do whatever they wanted to with the cars. The engine discussion centered around opening the transaxle and the ratios and the RPM and it never really got to the point, the teams were in front of it.”

“I think it was a great idea,” Yates continued. “I think if they had kind of boxed that in a little better, maybe it would’ve been moved forward, but it was a little too open. We never got to the point on the engine side of opening the power. We probably never got to the end other than maybe increase RPM, but I think it’s something the sport needs to do in the future.”

“The All-Star Race is a great place for it, it was just a little bit too open-ended in my opinion.”

For now, the NASCAR Cup Series is staying at 670 horsepower on all racetracks, except superspeedways, where the series runs a 510 horsepower package. Whether or not that will be changing in the future, is yet to be seen, despite many calls for a change to be imminent.

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