NASCAR increasing horsepower for 2026 Cup season

NASCAR will increase horsepower for Cup teams at select tracks next season, NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell stated Wednesday on the “Dale Jr. Download” podcast.

Teams will have their horsepower increase from 670 to 750 at ovals measuring less than 1.5 miles and all road courses.

Those tracks will be:

Bowman Gray Stadium

Circuit of the Americas

Phoenix Raceway

Darlington Raceway

Martinsville Speedway

Bristol Motor Speedway

Watkins Glen International

Dover Motor Speedway

Nashville Superspeedway

San Diego Street Course

Sonoma Raceway

North Wilkesboro Speedway

Iowa Speedway

Richmond Raceway

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

World Wide Technology Raceway

Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course

Those tracks will represent 21 of the 38 total races (36 points races and two exhibition races) next year.

“Like any other change that we are considering to the cars, we listen to the fans a lot,” said John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, in a statement from NASCAR.

“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. We do listen to it.

“We are working on a lot of things in the background, we don’t often always talk about them until we’re ready to come out and announce an implementation plan for them. Their feedback is very important.”