NASCAR and Goodyear are holding a two-day tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway on Nov. 12-13 to try out some new rubber options that might be used next season, but the its the cars they’re running on that are the most interesting thing about the event.
The test marks the first time that the new 750 hp short track package will be tried on the seventh generation Cup Series car. NASCAR announced in October that it was cranking the engines up from 670 hp to 750 hp for ovals smaller than 1.5 miles and road courses after calls from drivers and fans for more power, as the car hasn’t put on the best show on those types of circuits.
All three manufacturers will be represented, with Bubba Wallace driving his 23XI Racing Toyota Camry, Alex Bowman in the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Ryan Preece behind the wheel of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
Josh Sell, Competition Director at RFK, told American Cars And Racing that hitting the 750 hp target was relatively simple.
“It’s the same engine, from a hardware perspective, and really just changing the tapered spacer [that controls the airflow in to the engine] to get the power level correct,” Sell said.
“Then there will be some level of gearing change required to get the RPMs back where we need them to be and where we want them to be from a durability standpoint.”
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While some were lobbying for more than 750 hp, NASCAR and the teams decided that was as high as they could go for now without incurring significant additional costs. However, if all goes well next season, NASCAR officials have said they will consider going even higher. For now, Sell thinks the drivetrains should be able to handle the modest boost.
“All of those parts are designed to withstand significantly more horsepower than then we’re putting through them right now,” he said.
The cars will be running the lowest downforce version of the short track aero package, which is intended to be used at all of the small ovals next year.
“The biggest challenge for us as a race team is understanding what the aero changes will be on our car setup and everything else that we have going on,” Sell said. “I think that that answer may change a little bit from track to track … so we’ll start to get an understanding of that in the next couple days, but that’ll certainly be a ongoing topic of conversation as we move forward.”
One mystery that remains ahead of the test session is what car Hendrick Motorsports will be showing up with. Chevrolet has redesigned its car body, but has not yet publicly revealed it. The extent of the changes are unknown, but team owner Rick Hendrick told Fox Sports that they were aimed at increasing downforce.
Chevy’s seventh generation Cup Series was originally designed to look like the Camaro, which went out of production after the 2024 model year. The teams continued to race it in 2025, but replaced the Camaro name on the bumper with Chevrolet.
With the Camaro gone, the Corvette is the only “car” model sold by Chevrolet alongside its SUVs and trucks. NASCAR officials have referred to the new car as a Chevrolet, but no one has mentioned a model name and Chevrolet has not responded to requests for comment about the test.
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