NASCAR considers lowering horsepower to improve racing, decrease costs

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DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. —

Sprint Cup cars racing unrestricted at Daytona International Speedway?

NASCAR's top tour using engines for more than one race?

That day might be closer than you think.

As part of an initiative to improve racing and decrease ever-rising costs, NASCAR is discussing how to lower the horsepower in the Cup series and extend the life cycle to two races per engine --€“ initiatives that could be implemented as early as 2015.

From a performance standpoint, there'€™s a general consensus that slowing down the cars would have the greatest impact on the racing itself. Slowing the cars would bunch up the packs and possibly make the racing tighter and closer.

Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR's VP of Innovation and Racing Development, points out that the horsepower of the current spec engine has jumped from 450 to 850 over the last 30 years, while the speeds have climbed by about 30 miles per hour and "€œthe tire footprint is the same."€

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Other suggestions include moving from a flat tappet camshaft in the Cup engines to the roller camshafts which are currently used in the Nationwide and Truck series. Consequently, Cup engines could be recycled to the lower series.

"€œAs engine builders we'€™ve tried to cross this bridge many times,"€ said Doug Yates, CEO of RoushYates, which supplies engines to NASCAR'€™s Ford teams. "€œShould we go roller cams all the way across every series? And there was always a good reason not to do it. Well, today there is probably a better reason to do it than not to do it because if we'€™re going to run engines longer and get more life out of them and save some costs it would be better to have a roller cam application rather than a flat tappet application.

FULL article: http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/sto...owering-horsepower-to-preserve-engines-012714
 
I have been saying for some time the horsepower needs to be cut down if they want better racing. There is such a thing as too fast if the drivers are hanging so close to the edge. I go to a lot of dirt tracks and there are some tracks where it's just too fast to have good racing. It becomes a high-speed parade, which is what NASCAR has become on many of its tracks.
 
So this just occurred to me. I like this idea.. reducing cost would most likely make it so underfunded teams could be more competitive, which I think would be great for the sport. The fact that nearly half the field has virtually no chance of winning races or championships is bad imo. Imagine if there were 43 cars that could win any given week? It would also attract more sponsors therefore putting more money into the sport. It's a well known business model... selling more at a lower price makes more money than selling less at a higher price... I don't know that this would be the case but I think anything they can do to make more teams competitive would be great for the sport. This whole 16 teams in the chase thing means nearly every competitive team will be in the chase. If there were 43 competitive teams that would not be the case and making the chase would still mean something.
 
Next week it will be Mufflers on the exhaust or some other ignorant change. Too many changes being proposed, what the heck is going on ???
 
If they do this the might not have to manufacture 4-way battles going into Homestead...,
 
Is nascar FINALLY coming to their senses? I've been asking for a 300 ci or less engine for years. Slow the cars down, lighten the frame, and get back to racing tires that wear. Slower cars also make aero much less important, and a lighter frame will make drivers safer during door impacts.

If nascar really wants to become relevant again, go to a consumer based block...which means OHC. Then you could run multiple races with the same engine.
 
probably work pretty good. I would be worried it would give an unfair advantage to the Chevy's and Fords though, and the top teams are not going to do that, and the lower level teams have been doing that for years.
FenderBumper said:
Is nascar FINALLY coming to their senses? I've been asking for a 300 ci or less engine for years. Slow the cars down, lighten the frame, and get back to racing tires that wear. Slower cars also make aero much less important, and a lighter frame will make drivers safer during door impacts.

If nascar really wants to become relevant again, go to a consumer based block...which means OHC. Then you could run multiple races with the same engine.
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another thing to consider is if the engines get cheaper, and used bodies/chassis are all pretty close to the same, there could be more cars trying to qualify for the field with the lower costs involved. On the smaller tracks where a slick car isn't as important, who knows, a nobody could show up and become a somebody.
 
StandOnIt said:
probably work pretty good. I would be worried it would give an unfair advantage to the Chevy's and Fords though, and the top teams are not going to do that, and the lower level teams have been doing that for years.


another thing to consider is if the engines get cheaper, and used bodies/chassis are all pretty close to the same, there could be more cars trying to qualify for the field with the lower costs involved. On the smaller tracks where a slick car isn't as important, who knows, a nobody could show up and become a somebody.
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That's what I said. This could make more teams competitive.
 
VaDirt said:
True. remember when the cut the testing sessions? In came the 7 point (or whatever) shaker. Increasing costs.
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Poorely planned rule. Shakers had been around for a while when nascar closed tracks to team testing, so it was clear the big organizations would end up using them.
 
Sure would be nice if they would try this to improve the quality of racing instead of ruining the championship system.

I actually like this idea. Make the race cars more like street cars.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
I remember when speeds and horsepower were considerably lower than at the present --- racing was exciting then, why not try it.
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Because back in the day the cars had no where near as much grip and down force. Leave the engines alone and take away the grip and down force and you will have better racing and you will put the drivers more in control. We dont need more restrictor plate racing. It sucks as it is. Lowering power will just create more of the same where everybody including Danica can hold it wide open all the way around. We need to give the drivers maximum horse power and see who is man enough to get everything they can out of it. Thats called racing.
 
Hmmm, let's see.........slower cars, convoluted BS Chase format...
What the hell is Brian trying to do; end NASCAR?
 
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