NASCAR as eager as its drivers to see how new power/downforce package plays at Darlington

NASCAR Cup Series drivers are so eager to see what a new rules package will produce Sunday at Darlington Raceway that even the sanctioning body is excited.

“I’m hyped up,” John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, told RACER. “We have the known changes coming into the weekend with the engine and the aero, but I think even the things we didn’t change now become unknowns because of the changes we did make. So, the tires and the warm weather we have for Sunday make for a lot of ingredients for a very exciting race.”

While it will not be the first time Cup Series teams have used the higher-horsepower setup this season (670 to 750), it is the first time the horsepower is being mixed with the short-track package on an intermediate racetrack. That's a bit of a different direction for NASCAR from years past, when using the aero package with less downforce via a smaller spoiler and rear diffuser.

The early expectations? It could produce one of the best races Darlington has ever seen.

“One thing I will tell you is that heads-up on Darlington, you want to see some cars out of control here,” Denny Hamlin said. “These cars, with essentially little to no underbody because we’re now going to the short track aerodynamic package for Darlington, these cars are out of control. I’m predicting four seconds of fall-off; it might be more. It’s just the cars with the underbody taken off and that simple diffuser, just even on new tires, just absolutely out of control. So, it’s going to be a wild card race.”

Without out-of-control race cars and tires falling off, the drivers are expecting to have their hands full. It will be a long, hard day of work. Goodyear is bringing the same left-side tire to Darlington that teams used last fall.

“My eyes are wide open,” said Brad Keselowski. “The biggest thing I’m thinking about at Darlington is to go 50 laps on a set of tires was almost impossible with the Next Gen car in the last two or three seasons, and now that we have more horsepower and less aero, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to go 35 laps. So, keeping up with the tires is going to be a big challenge – the drivers managing it, the teams putting our setups to where it can do it. Darlington is going to be a heavy lift. It’s always a heavy lift, but it’s a heavier lift now, I think, with these circumstances and a lot of unknowns entering the race at Darlington. It might turn out no different, but I don’t think that will be the case. I think it’s going to be a really difficult race.”

Power levels and tire fall-off continue to make for a complicated balance. Sean Gardner/Getty Images

In addition to Goodyear continuing to soften the tires in recent years, NASCAR had been working on the product at short tracks and road courses with different aero packages. But the drivers have remained steadfast in their belief that horsepower needed to be included in the equation on the bigger tracks. NASCAR meets with the drivers multiple times a year to discuss the racing product or whatever is on the minds of those in the industry.

“And when we were finally ready to commit to doing this in 2026, many of the drivers’ feedback at the time was, ‘Well, let’s just run this everywhere,’” said Probst. “For some of the bigger tracks like Michigan, Pocono and even some of the mile-and-a-half tracks where we have some pretty good racing right now, we didn’t want to upset the apple cart. Because, like I said, we either have really good racing or, at tracks like Michigan, until we get more data on this package, we’re afraid entry speeds will creep back up into the 220-mile-per-hour range. So, we said there are some tracks where this makes absolute sense, which was a lot of the mile and under … and we had a list of tracks in the middle where we said, ‘What do we do with those?’

“The drivers were pretty adamant that we should err on the side of high power, low downforce for those tracks. So, a large percentage of driver feedback and fans wanted us to get more aggressive with this, and that’s what we see this weekend. It’s as much hype and uncertainty in a race that I can remember in a long time.”

The drivers have hammered NASCAR and Goodyear since the introduction of the Next Gen car about being aggressive with needed changes. While it has shone on most intermediates, it has struggled on short tracks and road courses, leaving more to be desired in the racing product. Probst, though, noted that the car is always a work in progress and never a destination.

“We’ll also be looking at some of our quantitative metrics,” Probst said. “How many passes for the lead? Did one car dominate the race? Did we have a lot of good passing amongst the top 15 cars? How far apart were they running throughout the course of the race? But I would say, more than not, we listen to what the fans have to say. That’s what’s important at the end of the day.

“A lot of times, maybe our drivers don’t like some things, but the fans do. So, it’s trying to thread the needle between all that feedback. But at the end of the day, it’s what the fans say that ultimately matters.”

Whether or not the drivers like it, the results have to measure up for the fans too. Sean Gardner/Getty Images

The good news is that NASCAR won’t have to look far for feedback after Sunday’s race. Between post-race interviews, podcasts, social media and satellite radio, the opinions will be flowing from drivers and fans. NASCAR also receives between 3,000 and 5,000 comments from its fan council each week to review.

Should things go very well this weekend and the push from drivers undoubtedly continues for high horsepower everywhere, there is no set deadline for NASCAR to make a decision on 2027. There are still 13 other races where the package will be used this season. Any decision would likely come in the fall around the Chase.

And said decision will be made after NASCAR and its manufacturer partners agree they are comfortable with the engines' durability on the larger tracks. Plus, the racing is still good. It also shouldn’t come as a surprise if NASCAR continues down the same path in 2027 with running it at select tracks, perhaps adding more, but not implementing it across the board.

“We’re going to inch in on it, and if that means we run it at a few more tracks next year, and we spread this out over two years, that’s fine as well,” Probst said. “But we told the drivers we would sample this at some of the bigger tracks. (Darlington) is one of the data points, and we’ll see how it goes Sunday. If that looks good and the racing is good, then we’ll obviously stay aggressive and keep sprinkling in more and more of these over time.”