NASCAR making major rule change for 2026 season

NASCAR President Steve O'Donnell speaks on rule change

"Whatever you do, you want to make sure that if you change the horsepower within the car, you gotta match it up with the aero, you gotta match it up with braking, all these things," said NASCAR President Steve O'Donnell on Wednesday's episode of the "Dale Jr. Download."

"We hear the fans, we hear the industry, yes we want to try and see what will work here," O'Donnell said. "If you went beyond 750, we looked at almost $40-50 million cost to the industry. We're looking at Dodge coming into the sport, we're looking at other OEMS coming into the sport, and then our current partners. 

"We want to take a step. We want to marry that up with aero, so we're going to do a test in the offseason at North Wilkesboro. I think some of the drivers are happy about that."

The first official glimpse of the horsepower increase will come right off the bat to kick off the 2026 season. Bowman Gray Stadium, the host of the 2026 NASCAR Clash, will be the first track to debut the new horsepower change in a race on Feb. 1. 

Other tracks impacted by the change include the aforementioned North Wilkesboro Speedway, Phoenix Raceway, Darlington Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, Richmond Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Circuit of the Americas, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, World Wide Technology Raceway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the San Diego Street Course, Nashville Superspeedway, Dover Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen, Sonoma Raceway and Iowa Speedway.