With NASCAR’s recent increase in horsepower at short tracks and road courses, fans are asking if the sport should increase engine power at larger tracks, something that NASCAR executive Mike Forde says the sport is not opposed to, though they likely will not make any changes during the 2026 season.
This past off-season, after many seasons of fans and drivers asking NASCAR to experiment with more horsepower on short tracks, the sport finally approved an increase in horsepower for the 2026 season.
Of course, this change came with a few limitations.
Rather than a drastic increase, the sport opted to increase the number from the original NASCAR Next Gen’s 670 horsepower to around 750 horsepower.
Furthermore, as opposed to a change for the full 36-race schedule and the season’s three exhibition races, this change would only be implemented for short tracks, road courses, and ovals less than 1.5 miles.
For the most part, the change has received praise from fans, as, paired with softer tires, action on short tracks has increased from last season.
Nonetheless, a large portion of the NASCAR fanbase is now asking for this change to move beyond shorter intermediate tracks like Darlington Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway, to intermediate tracks sitting at or above 1.5 miles in length.
During the latest episode of NASCAR’s Hauler Talk podcast, NASCAR Managing Director of Racing Communications Mike Forde addressed this conversation around these larger intermediates and even larger tracks, saying that NASCAR has no plans to increase horsepower as of right now.
Forde says that NASCAR is not opposed to changes, but, seeing as tracks like Charlotte Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway offer up some of the best racing on the schedule, officials are hesitant to “fix what’s not broken.”
“We are not against doing it. We just felt that you look at the mile and a half races and I think everyone’s in agreement that it’s the best racing we have. And so let’s not fix what’s not broken, don’t want to hurt something that that we all feel is pretty good.” — Mike Forde
This, of course, does not mean that NASCAR is ruling out a change to the horsepower at larger tracks, as there will be discussions about a horsepower increase during the offseason.
Still, even if the sport were to look into any changes, Forde feels that this is “more of a ’27 situation” and that he does not see any changes to the current package during the 2026 season, saying that NASCAR will look back at this season’s racing product during the offseason.
“I think what we have for the remainder of the year, we’re gonna stick with that,” Forde said. “But then at the end of the season, [we’ll] look at how the Darlingtons, Nashvilles, Gateways, even the short tracks, how they raced, and then how the mile and a halfs race too.”
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