NASCAR will be increasing the amount of horsepower in the Next Gen Car starting the 2026 season, amid cries of a change in the playoff format.

And the new package for short tracks will be put to the test at Bristol Motor Speedway in a test session next week, according to Racing News. That comes before a NASCAR confirms its plans for a new format next season. 

Given how the Next Gen car performs, many drivers have requested that the cars receive more power to make the product more engaging. Now, NASCAR has announced that it indeed will introduce more power at select tracks in the upcoming season.

In a statement, NASCAR stated that at the Circuit of The Americas, Watkins Glen, San Diego, Sonoma, Charlotte Roval, Bowman Gray, Phoenix, Darlington, Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Nashville, North Wilkesboro, Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire, and the World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway each will feature cars with 750 horsepower. 

John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, explained why the increased horsepower will be spread out throughout the season. “That gives us an opportunity to sample some of the short tracks, road courses early in the season, get a look at the engines after we’ve raced them at the new power level,” Probst said. 

Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.

“If that all looks good, I would not rule out looking at increasing that horsepower at the mile and a halfs and above. It’s just something that we kind of want to crawl, walk, run with this, and so this is the start, looking at the increased power at the short tracks. If that looks well, and I’m not committing to this today, but we will consider expanding the use of that as we go forward.

“Now, some of the best racing we have right now is at our intermediate tracks, so it’s a scenario we’ll tread very lightly to make sure that we don’t upset something. It is a package. It’s the downforce, it’s the drag, it’s the power, it’s the tire wear, all together that’s creating those good shows.

“So don’t want to just change one for the sake of changing it and then find out later that we did something bad there and hurt the on-track product. So we’ll proceed with caution.” As for why 750 horsepower was chosen, Probst stated that it was the agreed-upon number that wouldn’t cause too much change to the engine. 

Regarding why NASCAR opted to make the change now, Probst added: “I would say, like any other change that we are considering to the cars, we listen to the fans a lot.

“We listen to the drivers. We have stakeholders in the broadcast, OEM (manufacturers) and team competition and team business folks, so there’s always no shortage of feedback that we get. Our fans are very passionate, they provide very candid feedback, so that all is very important to us.”

While added horsepower is a welcome change, one of the biggest changes fans are looking for is a change in the playoff format. This was most evident after Hamlin’s loss to Larson at Phoenix, with fans making their thoughts known on social media.