Cars blazing through oval tracks at 200mph is no joke. The nature of NASCAR as a sport has always made it exciting, thrilling, and dangerous. But at the same time, over the years the sport has seen some changes—both good and bad.

A lot of revisions have taken place in NASCAR in its 75 years of existence. If one were to compare the version of the sport that was created in 1949 with the one in 2023, there would hardly be too many similarities.

Some of these changes, however, have attracted more criticism than applause. Take for instance the changes to the format of the Cup Series, or the complete rehaul of the Clash. On that list also fall the rules and regulations regarding car and engine build.

An outsider would presume that as technologies advance with time, cars from the past would always have engines “inferior” to those of the present. But NASCAR hasn’t taken that path of linearity.

This trend became especially pronounced in the 21st century. With the introduction of restrictor plates and other regulations, the organization began to introduce ceilings on the amount of horsepower a car could generate. Moreover, that ceiling has been coming down over the years.

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Per current regulations, introduced ahead of the 2022 season, the Next Gen car has the most stringent ceiling to date. As reported by NBCSports before the start of the season, cars were to be capped at 670 horsepower engine with a 4-inch spoiler for all Cup Series speedways except Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

NASCAR fans miss the days of the past

Fans and drivers (those who got the chance to race or watch those cars of the past) continue to yearn for those days of unfettered beastly power. Landon Cassill, a driver himself, had posted a tweet from the past, showing annoyance that cars these days are tame in comparison. He wrote, “That first lap of practice off the truck, 210 into T1, 9500RPM feeling. Don’t ever forget what they took from us.”

He followed that up with another tweet of cars zooming across the track.

The undated video made fans miss those days of 1000hp racing. 

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As technologies will continue to get better and better, tracks will get modified and cars will have the ability to go faster. The ball falls in NASCAR’s court—do they want it to happen? Maybe, or maybe not. All that fans can do is hope.