Why does NASCAR keep reducing horsepower? All you need to know

NASCAR has been keeping a check on the horsepower outputs of the high-octane V8 engines used in the sport. The governing body has been cautiously reducing the horsepower in the otherwise ever-improving products in recent years. The reasons include cost-effectiveness and safety concerns.

NASCAR's first notable reduction in horsepower was in 1988 when the restrictor plate, a safety component, was introduced to curb the speed of cars after Bobby Allison's Talladega crash the previous year. At the time, stock cars could go up to 210 miles an hour on the speedways.

Though the plates were deemed to be a safety element, they also resulted in an unintended setback for the drivers and teams, reducing the car's speed and thereby affecting lap times. This also led to fewer instances of overtaking and in fact resulted in multi-car wrecks since the restrictor plates allowed cars to bunch together in tight packs during the race.

Here's a look at the aforementioned NASCAR crash -

NASCAR introduced tapered spacers replacing restrictor plates in 2019, which has resulted in drivers achieving better outputs, now being able to make adjustments depending on the track, which was not possible with the restrictor plates.

Currently, NASCAR uses two different horsepower packages in the Next-Gen cars. One of them is 510 bhp for select tracks including Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega which feature higher bankings. The other is of a 670 horsepower output, for all other tracks.

However, NASCAR's major focus seems to be the cost of maintaining the engines which increases as horsepower is increased, according to officials. NASCAR's Chief Racing Development Officer John Probst told FOX Sports' Bob Pockrass,

"If you add the horsepower, you add the cost, then you see if it is better. There's no guarantee you get there, and (that) it would be any better. And I think there's some evidence that shows as we add horsepower, they run further apart. There's some that shows it's better ... and there's some other (that) shows no, might not be. So that's a heck of a gamble to take with the entire industry."

The NASCAR community saw the horsepower gradually reduced consistently after the 2015 season until now. Up till 2014, the stock car engines were able to give an output of 900 horsepower but it was reduced to 750 bhp the next year. The 2019 season saw the power decrease to 550 bhp. However, for the Next-Gen cars, officials have allowed the horsepower to be increased to 670 bhp for most tracks.

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Kevin Harvick reacts to the 'reluctant' NASCAR that reduced horsepower

2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick shared his views on NASCAR being reluctant to increase the horsepower for Next-Gen cars.

In an episode of his podcast, Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour, the 48-year-old slammed NASCAR for spending millions of dollars on parts of stock cars rather than using them to increase the bhp.

"I cannot understand why we want to keep spending millions and millions of dollars on CFD and wind tunnels and changing parts and changing pieces. The engine costs hasn't changed since we changed the engine rules. I don't understand why we just don't want them to blow the back tires off the car. It doesn't make any sense to me," Harvick said. [00:10]

"But I just truly believe that it needs to blow the back tires off the thing and it's got to have more than a thousand. It's got to have at least a thousand horsepower," he added.