There has been talk of NASCAR increasing horsepower for the 2026 season. Brad Keselowski indicated earlier this week on Corey LaJoie‘s “Stacking Pennies” podcast that it looks like that will, in fact, happen.
“Well, you know, it looks like NASCAR is going to change the rules next year to where we’re like 740, 750 [horsepower],” Keselowski said. “It’s not quite 100, because, you know, right now, technically, they’re at 670, but realistically, they’re like 685, 690, so.”
As far back as 2015, NASCAR has incrementally decreased the horsepower of engines capable of producing over 900. NASCAR has capped engines at 670 horsepower since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022.
NASCAR has argued against a horsepower increase for years. They have mainly claimed that the 670-horsepower package is set up to attract new manufacturers to the sport. There’s also concerns of cost. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said in May that more horsepower was “on the table.”
He followed up last month with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, saying that increasing horsepower in the Next Gen car at short tracks is a priority for the 2026 season. Sawyer added that the biggest challenge is determining which racetracks would get the short track increase.
More horsepower on the way in NASCAR?
“We’re always trying to make our racing — whether it’s short track, road course, intermediate, superspeedway — we want to make it better. We feel like we have a really good product right now, but we want to build on that. We still have some work to do,” Sawyer said. “We’ve discussed many times about horsepower on the short tracks and that’s something that’s an ongoing discussion with our industry stakeholders, Toyota, Ford and Chevy, as well as our engine builder and our race teams. Feel like we’re having positive conversations; there’s still a lot that goes into that. Obviously, that’s a 2026 initiative to get that across the line.
“So, we still continue to have very positive conversations around that and some of it boils down to if you look at a Martinsville, you look at a Richmond — it’s pretty straightforward because that’s a short track. But then, you look at a Loudon, and Loudon is a mile, but it races like a short track, so does it fall into that same bucket? We have to look at racetracks like that — Dover — it’s a mile racetrack, but speeds are up there. Is that also in that engine package that may be on the short track? … We’re optimistic that we’re going to get there, but still a little bit more work to do on that.”
NASCAR could look and feel quite different next season. More horsepower appears to be on the way. Beyond that, however, a possible new way to decide a champion. According to Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, a member of the playoff committee, a full 36-race season championship is back on the table. Gluck added that a tweak to the current elimination style format “may still win out.”