“Sounds Like Laziness” – Fans Bash NASCAR for Reasoning Behind Less Horsepower, Call the Sport “No Longer Racing” but “Entertainment”

NASCAR cars go 200mph on average in a Cup Series race. That sounds mind-blowing, doesn’t it? But things aren’t so simple behind the curtains. It takes millions of dollars and thousands of hours of testing to get those engines ready. That cost can sometimes hold progress back too.

Ahead of the 2022 Cup Series season, NASCAR announced some big changes. While the introduction of the Next Gen car was definitely the biggest, there were some other major decisions as well.

Among those decisions was the cap on 670 horsepower for engines in Cup Series races. Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s Chief Racing Development Officer, told NASCAR.com: “We met with the industry, a number of drivers post-test on Friday with the packages we had narrowed down.” 

“[We] really hit on what we all thought would be a great Next Gen car in terms of going out under one rules package with 670 horsepower and then a low-downforce 4-inch spoiler, which we believe we can implement across all of our tracks outside of superspeedways,” said O’Donnell.

Per O’Donnell, the decision was taken because: “So the bottom line of all this, and you’ll hear this from the drivers is that this package with the Next Gen car puts it back in the drivers’ hands and we’re excited about what that will do in 2022, for sure.”

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In other words, the decision was taken of greater drag in the Next Gen car in comparison to previous models.

Fans are unhappy that NASCAR introduced a cap

But for fans, the decision wasn’t the best one. A fan asked Bob Pockrass why their engines had been capped at 670hp. Pockrass answered the question for the fan.

However, that answer didn’t make fans any happier. They ended up calling out NASCAR’s laziness.

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Fans already criticized the Next Gen a lot for its safety concerns. But this cap makes things worse for NASCAR. Will it change?