Kyle Larson secured a playoff spot for the 2024 Championship two weeks ago at Las Vegas by winning the Pennzoli 400. It was dominant race for the No:5 team that saw them sweep all the stages and lead over 250 laps on his way to the win. Other than Tyler Reddick in the final laps, no driver was able to give a proper fight for the race win.
Kyle Larson had the best machinery of the day at Vegas and Rick Hendrick , the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, is using the race winning engine for a new project. He has assigned the HMS engine makers to build a 1000 HP engine using the race winning No:5 Cup engine which is around 650 HP and put it in one of his personal cars. Larson reveled these details while talking about the need to increase Cup cars’ horsepower, during Dale Jr. Download podcast.
They’re literally taking the engine I won with [in] Vegas [Pennzoil 400] and making it a 1000 horsepower engine to be put in one of Rick’s [Hendrick] personal cars right now.
Larson said via Dale Jr. Download.
Kyle Larson gives his take on the NASCAR horsepower debate
NASCAR debuted the new short-track package for the Next-Gen cars at Phoenix last Sunday. They were expected to finally fix the issues around the passing issue and traffic issue the came with the 7th Gen car on short tracks. But it wasn’t as big of a success as expected as drivers saw very limited changes.
This once again shifted the discussion back to the long going demand from teams and drivers to increase the horsepower. One of the main arguments against this has been the cost and time constrains. But according to Larson it won’t take much effort. He made the argument by giving the Rick Hendrick 1000 HP car argument.
All these engine builders and teams are saying 'It's not gonna cost any difference.' I've studied maths in the same thing, it's like 'Dude, we could bring 1000 horsepower next week. Larson said.
Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin had also made the same point as he pointed out that NASCAR just needs to make a simple phone call to make the engine change. If NASCAR can’t find another solution, listening to the drivers would be the best option.
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