“But, if a few engines blew up here and there, who cares? The engine bills didn’t go down. Engine bills have not gone down since they went to these rules.”
The NASCAR Next Gen car made it’s debut in the 2022 season. Today, NASCAR is still tweaking the product and looking for solutions.
Specifically, there are large issues with the short track package. While the product has greatly improved on 1.5-mile tracks, it’s struggling on short tracks due to a range of issues.
Aerodynamics, a lack of power, a wider tire and shifting are all changes made with the Next Gen car. Together, the short track product has suffered.
At one time, NASCAR Cup Series machines were making 1000hp. Now, that number is down to 750hp on short tracks. Then, mufflers were added, further reducing the power output.
NASCAR recently ran a much softer tire at Martinsville Speedway. The tire put down rubber much quicker than in previous years.
In the middle of the winter, NASCAR is set to host a test session at Phoenix Raceway. They’ll be testing a number of new changes to the short track package.
NASCAR has been reluctant to add power to the Next Gen car. However, for the first time, it appears they are more open to that idea.
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“I think they’re going to take a big swing at it in the Phoenix test,” Kevin Harvick stated via the Dale Jr Download.
“Really try to wrangle the short track package back to where it needs to be. We go softer on the tire and the tire goes faster and lasts longer. That confuses everybody. I think everybody is wanted to go back to the drawing board and take a bigger swing.”
“I just don’t know that there’s enough power in the racecar. There’s way more to it than just saying, ‘Hey, we need more horsepower.’ There’s the masterplan of the car to bring more manufacturers and people in.”
“But, if that racecar would blow the back tires off of it. And you had to think about putting that throttle down. It would change the way that you race.”
“I think they’re going to take big swipes at the tires, just the whole package in general. In my opinion, I think it will be hard to fix it unless they go faster getting into the corner and slower in the middle of the corner.”
“I wish they would just try it. With parts and the things we do now, I don’t believe that much horsepower would be that big of an issue for the engine manufacturers.”
“But, if a few engines blew up here and there, who cares? The engine bills didn’t go down. Engine bills have not gone down since they went to these rules.”
“Now, you’re looking for 1hp. Well, looking for 1hp is actually more expensive than looking for 10hp when you’re in the window that you’re in.”
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NASCAR comments on fixing the issue with more horsepower
In the state of the sport, NASCAR spoke on the idea of adding power to the cars on short tracks. And for the first time, they appeared more open to the idea.
“I think everything is up for consideration,” Steve O’Donnell stated.
“We’ve proven that. You have to factor in what are the costs involved as well, right? It’s not as simple as just upping the horsepower.”
“You better be ready for all your OEMs to be onboard. It better make sense for any potential new OEM and technology. It’s not just a short-term answer.”
“For us, we’re going to look at shifting specifically around that at our next test and see what we can do. There will be variations. Also some aero things we do with the underbody. There’s some things we found in Richmond from an aero standpoint that could work as well.”
“Nothing to report in terms of yes we’re going to do that. Open to everything, but I would say short-term more around shifting and the aero package.”
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