NASCAR president announces change for 2026 season | Sports News

NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell revealed to Dale Earnhardt Jr that the sanctioning physique can be implementing a main change to the Cup Series subsequent season.

In current months, followers, pundits and drivers alike have been calling on NASCAR to increase the pace of Next Gen vehicles — which in flip would make racing within the Cup Series more thrilling.

Recent horsepower assessments at New Hampshire Motor Speedway produced a “surprising result,” however appear to be enough for NASCAR prime brass to introduce modifications.

While making an look on the ‘Dale Jr. Download,’ O’Donnell introduced that NASCAR intends on rising the goal horsepower for Next Gen vehicles to 750 in any respect highway programs and tracks beneath 1.5 miles in size during the 2026 Cup Series marketing campaign.

“So, why 750? Why not 800? Why not 1,000? So, if you look at where we are today, where we can go without completely changing over the industry,” O’Donnell defined. “And so whatever you do, you want to make sure that if you’re going to change the horsepower within the car, you’ve got to match it up with the aero of the car, you’ve got to match it up with braking. All of these different things come into play.”

As for what made NASCAR pivot to this plan, O’Donnell credited the choice to motorsport followers and stakeholders who voiced their displeasure with the present state of the Cup Series. “We hear the fans, we hear the industry,” he stated. “Yes, we want to try and see what will work here.”

During the brainstorming course of, NASCAR mulled over imposing an even better increase in horsepower. Yet the decisionmakers finally settled on 750, citing the prices that race groups and engine builders would inevitably incur.

“If you went beyond 750, we looked at almost $40-50 million cost to the industry,” O’Donnell stated. “And so if you look at our job, it’s, yeah, you want to make a call right away. But you’ve got to think about the out years.

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“We’re looking at Dodge coming into the sport, we’re looking at other OEMs coming into the sport, and then our current partners. Three-year runway, we didn’t want to say, ‘Alright, it’s 1,000 now,’ and then, just kidding, three years from now, we’re changing it again. That’s 100s of millions of dollars to the industry.”

Looking forward to subsequent season, highway programs impacted by the horsepower change are Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Circuit of The Americas, the new San Diego Street Circuit, Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International.

Oval tracks that fall beneath the 1.5 -mile size benchmark embrace Bowman Gray Stadium, Bristol Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Richmond Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway.