The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season may be done and dusted, but RFK Racing\u2019s Ryan Preece is already back behind the wheel of his NextGen Ford, helping gather valuable data for next season.<\/p>\n
Along with 23XI Racing\u2019s Bubba Wallace<\/a> and Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Alex Bowman, 35-year-old Preece was selected for the recent Goodyear tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway, which not only allowed the tire manufacturer to test compounds on all three OEMs, but also for teams to put the new 750-horsepower package to the test.<\/p>\n The newly raised horsepower limit (up from 670) will be in effect for a total of 17 events next season, including all road courses and tracks under 1.5 miles in length, as was announced by NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell on Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n This move was made in an attempt to improve racing in the often-criticized NextGen car, for which NASCAR<\/a> has struggled to put together a competitive short-track package.<\/p>\n Reflecting on his test in Tennessee, Preece told Earnhardt<\/a> on the \u2018Dale Jr. Download<\/a>\u2019 that it involved \u201cthe new package. It was taking the diffuser off. It was a bump in horsepower, 750, and then various different tire options.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n While the test produced some positive results, and Preece\u2019s general tone appeared largely upbeat, he admitted that on sticker tires, he doesn\u2019t expect drivers to feel a difference in the boost in horsepower.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, initially, I’ll be honest with you, 750 horsepower, that little bump, you’re not going to feel it initially on stickers. So I think it’s really going to take the combination of going softer on tires with the bump in horsepower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything we did is going to help for sure. And I think what we’re all asking for, as well as the fans, is to see\u2026not get stuck when you get behind a guy where the aero side of things just outweighs the grip that you have in your race car.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd at Bristol, that place is really tough. It’s really tough because it’s super fast, and it really just depends on what we end up bringing. So what I did learn is I probably didn’t go long enough into the run to feel the horsepower, kind of, to where I had to really manage it, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n This largely follows what now two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson<\/a> predicted back in October of the horsepower boost, when he urged fans to keep expectations \u2018tempered\u2019 as it pertains to its impact<\/a>, via On3<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI did a test recently at Kershaw, and nobody told me I had higher horsepower, and I never really realized it,\u201d he admitted. \u201cSo, yeah, I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s going to feel different or look crazy different. I think it will be better, but it\u2019s not going to fix everything, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n The news regarding the Goodyear test was more positive from the former Stewart\u2013Haas Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing driver, who added that he learned a good amount, including that they were able to cord either left or right side tires, while they were also able to make them last, \u201cEven with only three cars and with it being 55 degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n Preece added, \u201cSo ultimately, I think it was just Goodyear gathered a lot of data. We gathered data for NASCAR on the package side, and whatever we go back with is going to be what’s going to be putting on the best show for the fan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season may be done and dusted, but RFK Racing\u2019s Ryan Preece is already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,131961,131960,2332,634,9537,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-292149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-goodyear-tire-test","11":"tag-horsepower-boost","12":"tag-motorsport-section","13":"tag-nascar","14":"tag-ryan-preece","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}