NASCAR execs tease change that would make cars | Sports News

NASCAR executives may increase the Next Gen car’s energy, a lot to the delight of many drivers within the sport.

The Next Gen car has been one that neither followers nor drivers have fawned over, with many believing that the car’s lack of horsepower is making races uninteresting. Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) star Denny Hamlin has repeatedly claimed that rising the horsepower may clear up many points plaguing the game at current. 

And it seems that NASCAR executives might be altering their ideas on the Next Gen car as properly. During an look on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Elton Sayer, NASCAR’s vice president of competitors, shared that there have been talks relating to an increase in energy.

What’s more, Mike Forde, the managing director of communications for NASCAR, added more fuel to the fire of the Next Gen cars probably have more horsepower sooner or later. 

“It was something we proactively brought up to have a further discussion of improving the short-track package,” he said [h/t SportsNaut]. “Obviously the drivers all embraced that topic and requested more and more horsepower. So we said, ‘You got it. We’ll look into it.’ We are working with engine builders on that, and we’ll see if this is something that’s put into place this season.”

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This is just not the primary time Forde has spoken on an increase in horsepower. Earlier in May, he spoke on the ‘Hauler Talk’ podcast and declared NASCAR was trying into making the Next Gen car more highly effective primarily based on the suggestions they’ve obtained from drivers all through the months.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure that’ll come up this weekend and that’s something that we’re going to look at seriously,” he stated on the time. “I think, you know, you, you hear I, you know, levels of 900, a thousand horsepower. I don’t know if that’s going to be on [the table], it’s not on the table just because of the cost, but you know, there’s some conversation of, can you go up to 750?

“And that’s one thing that, properly, I’m sure we’ll focus on with the drivers too. I do not wish to make any guarantees or get anybody’s hopes up, however that is, we severely take heed to the, to the drivers and their suggestions and we’ll see what we will do there.”

As it stands, the Next Gen car is limited to 670 horsepower, though Hamlin believes it is an easy and collaborative process to get the car where it needs to be. During an episode of the ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast, the JGR star explained his thought process as a driver and also as a co-owner of his own team. 

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“We can fix this car. The teams can fix this car,” he said. “We simply acquired to get with the drivers, get in a room and work out what do you battle? Why can’t you go? And then come up with some remedies of how we will change this.”

He added: “They just didn’t do enough testing. The car wasn’t ready. We had to delay it one year, we had the COVID thing – it was not thought out enough… We didn’t have multiple racecars on the racetrack testing this car until two months before the very first race. And at that moment is when we all realized holy —-, you cannot pass. It was really, really bad.

“Now, we did some things. We were going to run 500 horsepower. That was the original plan is to run 500 horsepower in this thing. But it was so horrible that we got them talked into 670.”