How to Settle the Short Track Horsepower Debate

It all started with a question from Bubba Wallace to the media Friday at Phoenix after his first practice session in the Cup Series’ new short track package.

“Is this 2023 or 2024?,” Wallace said. “It feels like ‘23. There’s your answer.”

Wallace was responding to questions on how different the car felt from last year. Despite a larger rear spoiler and smaller diffuser meant to increase downforce and allow closer racing and better car control, the majority of drivers didn’t see much improvement on their end. Goodyear’s new tire helped with faster wear, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the issues that persist with the Next Gen Car.

With driver displeasure for the car came fans’ displeasure for an on-track product that saw minimal improvement from previous years’ short track races, at a time when three short tracks are coming up over the next four weeks.

Bubba’s comments made their way back to car owner Denny Hamlin during his media availability later that weekend. Hamlin, like his driver, was in favor of more horsepower than the current 650-hp build and argued it could be changed with a few phone calls and wouldn’t hurt a team’s bottom line or performance.

“Any horsepower you can add can make the racing better,” Hamlin said.

To further his argument for more horsepower, Hamlin had a further discussion on his Actions Detrimental podcast where he discussed testing with even less horsepower before the introduction of the Next Gen Car.

“We ran a December test at Charlotte the December before it came out (with 550 horsepower) and we said, ‘This is terrible, you can not do this. This is so bad,’” Hamlin said. “And so they bumped it up to 650. We were supposed to run 550, I could not imagine. The racing would be really, really bad for sure. That’s why I argue, hey, just give us what we had a few years ago. The 750.”

Soon it wasn’t just Hamlin beating the drum for drivers wanting more horsepower. On the Dale Jr. Download, Kyle Larson threw in his perspective on why more horsepower equals better racing for everyone.

“I think your difference in top speed to minimum speed would be much greater, so I think that would allow you to create different styles of how to get around a corner,” Larson said. “It’s just going to allow for drivers to make more…