NASCAR Insider shares his take on the less than ideal effects of a potential horsepower increase

NASCAR Insider Tommy Baldwin recently commented on the potential effects of a horsepower increase in the Next Gen car. During an episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Baldwin addressed the recent comments from Elton Sawyer on this subject.

Sawyer, the senior vice president of competition in NASCAR had claimed that the governing body could consider an increase in horsepower. However, the change would only be for select short tracks and would only come in 2026.

Speaking about this in the Spot On/Spot Off segment of their show, Tommy Baldwin said that he wasn't sure how much of an increase in horsepower would 'make a change.'

"I know they did try some stuff in New Hampshire a couple weeks ago in test and they were surprised on some things that happened. I don't think it was in a good way, which is really a surprise to me because I'm the one that always that we've talked about it even when Mark was on here about 100 horsepower would make a difference and I don't think it made much of a difference to move the needle," Baldwin described. [44:00]

Having said that, the NASCAR insider admitted that judging the effects of horsepower increase from New Hampshire is difficult considering the racetrack. He proposed that such a test be done at Richmond or Martinsville where tires are progressively softened, which could then potentially lead to 'some better racing.'

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Tommy Baldwin makes sense of the current state of racing in NASCAR

Following Tommy Baldwin's take on horsepower increase, Freddie Kraft, the spotter of Bubba Wallace mentioned 'the big thing' for him in this regard. He recalled when Tyler Reddick came on the Door Bumper Clear podcast and claimed that a switch flip of adding more horsepower won't be enough to make the racing great.

Because of this, the NASCAR spotter wondered if there are fundamentally more problems in the Next Gen car beyond a lack of power which don't allow it to race well in traffic.

Baldwin claimed that what has happened in NASCAR at present is that all the teams have 'honed into the setups' and everyone is really close to each other. He elaborated:

"Every time we have a major change, it takes a little bit for us all to figure everything out. Some with better tools and more money figure it out before others. But then the garage gets to talking and you get to hear things and you get to try things in your own system and now we're in the window, man. We all know what to do at all these tracks and all honing into just a little bit of issues that we have and it's getting closer." [45:25]

The NASCAR Insider pointed to the slim margins that seperate cars from each other on the track in practice and even in the race. With that said, Baldwin admitted that right now, 'it is hard.'