Whispers of a power surge in NASCAR’s premier series have fans buzzing, but veteran driver Kevin Harvick isn’t buying the hype.
On his podcast, the retired champ dropped this blunt take: When officials secretly tested juiced-up Next Gen engines, the pilot supposedly didn’t even notice the bump. Talk about anticlimactic.
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This comes hot on the heels of RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski coming out about NASCAR eyeballing a jump from 670 to 750 ponies. Sure, gearheads have been clamoring for more grunt to liven up the show—Next Gen’s reception has been lukewarm at best—but Harvick threw cold water on that idea. “It needs a ton of horsepower. It needs to be faster,” Announced the 49-year-old, echoing a growing chorus of old-schoolers who think modern rides drive like refrigerators compared to the beasts of yesteryear.
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Engine builder Doug Yates of Roush Yates Engines previously noted that a move to 750 horsepower “wouldn’t be much of a change,” adding to doubts that such a tweak would have a noticeable on-track impact. NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer recently confirmed that any horsepower adjustment would not arrive until 2026.
Harvick also pointed out the irony in NASCAR’s cost-control argument, noting that despite horsepower reductions in recent years, engine prices didn’t decline. “When they lowered the horsepower, the price of the engines went up,” he said.
With zero confirmation about which tracks might get the alleged power bump, if any, the whole debate remains stuck in neutral. Typical NASCAR drama—lots of noise, minimal action.
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