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Kyle Larson: NASCAR racing is 'stale,' approves of possible horsepower increase

Nick Profile Picby: Nick Geddes05/11/25NickGeddesNews
Kyle Larson
Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

Kyle Larson said Saturday that the current NASCAR Cup Series product has “gotten a little bit stale” and he would be in favor of the sport trying something new. But what exactly?

Larson, like others in the garage, wouldn’t mind a horsepower increase. The 2021 Cup Series champion explained why that could help.

“I don’t know, I think we would be all for trying something new,” Larson said, via Charlie Marlow on X. “I don’t know if it’s gonna change the racing drastically or anything. It’s a decent-sized increase but it’s not massive. I’d be open for it; think we all are. I think it’s gotten a little bit stale — the racing product — so, I think we’re in need of a change to try to help but I don’t know. I think it would be good to start there.”

As far back as 2015, NASCAR has incrementally decreased the horsepower of engines capable of producing over 900. Except for high-banked drafting tracks, NASCAR caps engines at 670 horsepower.

NASCAR’s Mike Forde addresses driver feedback on potential horsepower increase

NASCAR has argued against a horsepower increase for years. They mainly claim that the 670 horsepower package is set up to attract new manufacturers to the sport. There’s also concerns of cost.

Mike Forde, NASCAR managing director of racing communications, said that talks of going up to 900 or 1000 horsepower are off the table. What is on the table, however, is a slight increase.

“Well, I’m sure that’s going to come up too [this weekend at Kansas],” Forde said this week on Hauler Talk. “I’m sure that [horsepower] will come up this weekend, and that’s something that we’re going to look at seriously. You hear levels of 900, 1000 horsepower, whatever, I don’t know if that’s – that’s not on the table just because of the cost.

“But there’s some conversation of, can you go up to 750? That’s something that I’m sure we’ll discuss with the drivers, too. I don’t want to make any promises or get anyone’s hopes up, but that is, we seriously listen to the drivers and their feedback, and we’ll see what we can do there.”