NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer: More horsepower in Next Gen car is ‘on the table’

NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said Tuesday that increasing horsepower in the Next Gen car is “on the table.” Several drivers have implored NASCAR to add more horsepower and according to Sawyer, conversations are underway with its engine builder.

“It’s on the table,” Sawyer said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We are working closely with all the stakeholders in the industry, and as I said, the collaboration has been better than ever in our sport on all topics. This particular one, had a team owner council meeting last week, came up and we discussed that. Working closely, I know [senior vice president of innovation and racing development] John Probst had a conversation with our engine builder to see what we could do, how that would look and what changes would need to be made.

“As we talked about before, there’s the efficiencies that come with our rules and regulations that we have today and if you look at engines — there’s a lot that goes into it and it’s a tall mountain to climb, but we’re willing to do that to give our race fans the best product. Again, behind the scenes, there are a lot of conversations going on. How can we do that? Where do we do it? Is it across the board? Obviously, that’s not gonna be superspeedways. It’s just a lot to digest. But what I will say is it’s on the forefront. It is on the table and something that we’re discussing daily.”

NASCAR’s Mike Forde addresses driver feedback on potential horsepower increase

As far back as 2015, NASCAR has incrementally decreased the horsepower of engines capable of producing over 900. Except for high-banked drafting tracks, NASCAR caps engines at 670 horsepower.

NASCAR has argued against a horsepower increase for years. They mainly claim that the 670 horsepower package is set up to attract new manufacturers to the sport. There’s also concerns of cost.

Mike Forde, NASCAR managing director of racing communications, previously said that talks of going up to 900 or 1000 horsepower are off the table. What is on the table, as Sawyer said, is a slight increase.

“Well, I’m sure that’s going to come up too,” Forde said earlier this month on Hauler Talk. “I’m sure that [horsepower] will come up this weekend, and that’s something that we’re going to look at seriously. You hear levels of 900, 1000 horsepower, whatever, I don’t know if that’s – that’s not on the table just because of the cost.

“But there’s some conversation of, can you go up to 750? That’s something that I’m sure we’ll discuss with the drivers, too. I don’t want to make any promises or get anyone’s hopes up, but that is, we seriously listen to the drivers and their feedback, and we’ll see what we can do there.”