Denny Hamlin Proposes an F1-Inspired “Hybrid Technology” Idea to Solve NASCAR’s Horsepower Crisis

With time, Cup Series cars have been getting less and less powerful. Most of it is owing to safety purposes, but there is another factor in place. That is NASCAR’s goal of cost-cutting. However, despite continued reduction in power, many on the grid have been requesting faster cars.

Meanwhile, as per Denny Hamlin‘s recent observation, an increase in overall power seems like a distant thought for NASCAR. During a discussion on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin also pointed towards a Formula 1 feature that could be used to increase the power of these cars.

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During his latest podcast, Denny Hamlin said, “Every driver, stop asking NASCAR for more. They’re not going to give it to you. This is not the direction NASCAR wants to go from the top down. They don’t want more horsepower because it costs more money.”

He then elaborated on how higher horsepower would incur higher costs and that would not suit NASCAR’s goal of cost-cutting. Moreover, he thought that NASCAR might even prefer to bring down the horsepower with time, to make things more cost-effective.

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The 23XI Racing co-owner clarified that he does not think it is the right way to go. “I’m on the same side as the drivers that we need horsepower back to make these cars a little more uncontrollable,” he added.

Hamlin gives the F1 example to increase horsepower in NASCAR

Despite him being certain that NASCAR would never bring in more horsepower, he did have hope that there was one way it could be made possible. Hamlin used the example of “hybrid technology” which could provide additional horsepower. However, it would not be extracted from the combustion engine.

NASCAR can take the example of hybrid technology from Formula 1. In the recent decade, the turbo-hybrid era in F1 has proved to be massive technological innovation. Moreover, they too have reduced the engine capacity over time, in consideration of safety and costs.

But their introduction of the ERS (Energy Recovery System) or KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) can be looked at for inspiration by NASCAR. By implementing an energy recovery system, NASCAR would not have to expand on the combustion engine for additional horsepower.

Instead, drivers could get the opportunity to use their energy reserves for an additional hp boost from time to time.

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Another experimental thing they could look at is the usage of DRS (Drag Reduction System), where a small flap temporarily opens up in the rear wing to provide less drag on straights. Regardless of which technology they wish to adopt, there certainly are ways to increase the power and performance of the Next-Gen cars. Now it’s up to NASCAR to decide what they come up with.