{"id":420091,"date":"2026-01-19T22:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/420091\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T22:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T22:00:14","slug":"what-do-nascar-cup-series-drivers-think-of-the-new-750-hp-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/420091\/","title":{"rendered":"What do NASCAR Cup Series drivers think of the new 750 HP package?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. \u2014 A handful of NASCAR Cup Series drivers tested the new 750 horsepower package coming to the series in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans showed up to Tuesday\u2019s test\u00a0at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where drivers tested ahead of the series\u2019 day-to-night, 450-lap race in July.<\/p>\n

HHP Photo<\/p>\n

HHP Photo<\/p>\n

Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Chase Elliott tested Tuesday and noted the track had tire falloff after around 40 laps \u2013 despite also having \u201ca lot of grip.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see the power hurting the entertainment factor of the race. Hopefully, it allows us to have to pedal the cars at some point throughout a run,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI would have to imagine, we come back here in the summer months, certainly it will be warmer than it is today. You combine that with a lot more cars being on the track and I do think there will be wear. Obviously, more power will impact that as well. Hopefully, we keep inching up on making these long runs more of a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Dominic Aragon\/TRE<\/p>\n

RFK Racing\u2019s Chris Buescher had the most insight on how the track evolved throughout the run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWilkesboro, for one, is a very racey track. We have moved around from the start of the day, where we had one and a half lanes in one and two and were just buried on the bottom in three and four. Right at the lunch break, that all opened up,\u201d Buescher said.<\/p>\n

Buescher echoed Elliott, saying the longer run put the higher horsepower on full display.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou probably don\u2019t notice the power from the get-go, but at the tail end of the runs, with some of the falloff and the struggles in the car, I think that\u2019s where you realize, \u2018ok, I had more underneath us at the beginning of this run and I may be paying the price at this point.\u2019 There\u2019s no downside to it. This is a track, even though there\u2019s new asphalt, I think you\u2019ll see a little bit more change from it,\u201d Buescher said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo: Aragon\/The Racing Experts<\/p>\n

Erik Jones, who came up through the ranks in late models racing at tracks with the conditions NASCAR is chasing for the Cup Series, had some cautious optimism. He also expressed support for more horsepower, in addition to softer tires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the power goes, I hope it makes it better. Hopefully gets us some more falloff and gives us some opportunity to save tires. We went to the soft tires at different places, but I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s quite at the falloff that we need it to really race until we were super late in the run. We saw some falloff already today and it\u2019s going to be forty degrees hotter probably when we get back here,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

Hyak Motorsports\u2019 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. liked the horsepower increase for how it could bring his team closer to other more-powerhouse organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cShort tracks were somewhere we needed to get better at, no matter what the package was. So, throwing in new horsepower and a different package may help us figure it out, or at least get us closer to everybody else,\u201d Stenhouse said.<\/p>\n

HHP Photo<\/p>\n

The former NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series champion also signed off on the horsepower and softer tires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more horsepower, the better, yes. If we can continue in that direction, I do think Goodyear is doing a good job of bringing us tires that wear out and continuing to evolve them. I think all of us drivers and teams are on board with that. Pairing that with NASCAR adding horsepower, I think everything is moving in the right direction to get us even better racing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Ross Chastain supported just getting to test, in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is big. This is valuable. Justin Marks and Trackhouse spend a lot of money and I think they would spend a lot more if we had more days like this. Selfishly, we\u2019re competitors and we just want to do good. The best way to get better at racing is to go drive the car\u2026 Repeating something, as human beings, if we keep doing it with intention \u2013 not just cruising around in the wrong get \u2013 it\u2019s super valuable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wood Brothers Racing\u2019s Josh Berry, Team Penske\u2019s Joey Logano, Front Row Motorsports\u2019 Zane Smith, Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Kyle Busch, also participated in the test.<\/p>\n

HHP Photo<\/p>\n

HHP Photo<\/p>\n

\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.<\/p>\n

A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.<\/p>\n

Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years \u2013 as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.<\/p>\n

Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. \u2014 A handful of NASCAR Cup Series drivers tested the new 750 horsepower package coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-420091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420091","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=420091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}