NASCAR says it will ‘look at seriously’ horsepower increase

There is a periodic NASCAR/Drivers competition meeting coming up this weekend at Kansas Speedway and the passing struggles with the NextGen car on tracks like short tracks, road courses and superspeedways will no doubt be a topic of discussion.

That once again means the calls from drivers to increase horsepower, especially for short tracks and road courses, and for once, a top NASCAR communications executive says it will be considered in good faith.

Speaking on the official NASCAR podcast for all things competition related, Hauler Talk, host and senior director of competition communications Mike Forde says the expects some healthy conversations to come up regarding that topic on Saturday morning.

“Well, I’m sure that’s going to come up too [this weekend],” Forde said on Hauler Talk. “I’m sure that [horsepower] will come up this weekend, and that’s something that we’re going to look at seriously. You hear levels of 900, 1000 horsepower, whatever, I don’t know if that’s – that’s not on the table just because of the cost.

“But there’s some conversation of, can you go up to 750? That’s something that I’m sure we’ll discuss with the drivers, too. I don’t want to make any promises or get anyone’s hopes up, but that is, we seriously listen to the drivers and their feedback, and we’ll see what we can do there.”

The 750 number, instead of the current 650, is a popular target number right now for two reasons — 1) The previous generation of car used a tapered space that allowed 750 and that is also the maximum number the engine builders say can be reached without significant increasing costs.

For example, Ford Performance engine builder Doug Yates indicated last week that he felt 750 is something he would encourage NASCAR to look at.

“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 said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “But, to go back to those 900 horsepower engines, that would be quite the project and would definitely decrease the life of the engine.”

Right now, NASCAR engine regulations require the powerplant to be used twice before a rebuild and the full 900-plus HP would require a teardown after every usage, and thus, increase costs.

“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,” Yates said. “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.”

Those who want horsepower increases believe this is the key to unlocking better racing through increase tire wear and slower corner speeds and the potential for more mistakes to be made in the corners.

NASCAR has been reluctant in the name of cost containment.

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