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Motorsport

Sport

NASCAR stars have tempered expectations over power increase

NASCAR Kyle Larson Josh Berry Chase Elliott Erik Jones John Hunter Nemechek

For the most part, the Cup Series driver roster has taken a ‘there is nothing to lose’ mentality in response to NASCAR’s decision to marginally increase the horsepower target on short tracks and road courses next season.

Currently, the Cup Series uses a 670HP tapered spacer and will increase it next year to 750HP. While the industry has made gains in recent years through the development of softer tires and targeted aerodynamic tweaks, the racing product on short tracks and road courses is objectively worse than it was with the previous generation cars.

This car has a wider tire, makes more grip with them, and has less horsepower with increased weight with a completely sealed underbody and rear diffuser. After years of reluctance, NASCAR is pulling the figurative trigger on a small increase in the hopes to move the needle further without an increase in engine costs to teams.

Hendrick drivers react

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (Photo by: Jack Geissinger Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Chase Elliott called it ‘a good effort’ and said he just wants to see what direction it takes the car.

“It’s easy to sit here and say it’s not enough, it’s not this or it’s not that, but it’s something, right,” Elliott said during his media scrum on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “They’re trying so I applaud NASCAR for the effort and trying to keep the engine shops in mind in terms of what would happen if they went too far.

“What that threshold is, I don’t know, but I think it’s good to try it. If it proves to be a good direction, maybe that means we can add more, and if it’s not a good direction, we’ll come back and reassess. I’m looking forward to whatever it brings.”

His teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Larson, says fans need to have tempered expectations after a test in Kershaw, South Carolina where he wasn’t told there was more power until afterwards.

“It’s not way different,” Larson said. “I did a test recently at (Carolina Motorsports Park) and no one told me that I had higher horsepower and I never really realized it. I don’t expect it to feel different or be crazy different.

“I do think it will be better but I don’t think it’s going to fix everything.”

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)

John Hunter Nemechek agrees that the horsepower increase isn’t expected to be a cure-all but pairing that with the gradual improvements in the tires could make for an overall better racing product as well.

“I'm not sure how much's different the 750 package is going to make a lot of the racing but I definitely hope that it helps on some of the short tracks from tire degradation, tire wear, being able to manage your stuff and be able to show out, right,” Nemechek said. “Who knows how that's going to work, right?

“Time will tell but I'm excited for more horsepower and everyone who drives these things feel that way.”

His teammate at Legacy Motor Club, Erik Jones, overall thinks too much is made about overall power.

“It’s tough (because) I go back and forth on this battle all the time,” Jones said. “I've seen it both ways in the sport, right? I've seen where we've taken it down to, whatever it was, 550 horsepower package, five or six years ago, when I showed up in this sport, it was, the first Cup race I ever did, we had 900 horsepower, and then we had 750 horsepower, and then we had 500 horsepower and we had 670 horsepower, so I ran a lot of different horsepower.

“At the end of the day, when I go to my local short track, my favorite race in the night is usually like the street stocks, and they're not very fast, so I don't know that going faster is always your answer to better racing.”

Street Stocks also have very poor tires that fall off a ton under cars that have no aerodynamic properties whatsoever. But that’s also a point about the entire package of the cars.

Count Josh Berry in the ‘step in the right direction camp’ when asked during his press conference on Saturday.

“I’m sure everybody would like to have more but you look last week with the amount of tire fall off we had that little bit more horsepower is probably, I think we’re finding our way with all of that,” Berry said. “If we continue down the road of the tires wearing out, a little bit more horsepower, I think all of that stuff is directional.

“If we keep having the tire fall off and stuff like we’ve been seeing from time to time, then we probably aren’t going to need 1000 horsepower to make better racing.”

To his point, the race on the Charlotte Roval last weekend was the best on that track since the implementation of the new car and that was without a horsepower increase. The key is about taking grip away however they do it.

“You saw last week watching the end of that race and all the different strategies – three stop, two stop,” Berry said. “You take Darlington, for example, with how they split up the runs or have an even split, just having the fall off opens up all that stuff a lot more to where there’s not just one strategy. I think either way it’s still the right direction.”