“I think it’s gotten a little bit stale…the racing obviously, the product and all that.” When a Cup Series star who has won three out of 12 races and led a mind-blowing 817 laps in 2025 says this, you need to take him seriously. That star is none other than Hendrick Motorsports talent Kyle Larson. The No. 5 Chevrolet driver recently soared to success in Kansas, leading 221 of 267 laps. Considering his success and demands together, a NASCAR veteran could do nothing but agree.
Ken Schrader, a 4-time Cup Series race winner, has a love story with speed himself. He continued to explore that story to all extents until late last year, winning dirt or pavement Modified races. So Schrader has an acute sense and a sharp memory that support Kyle Larson’s demands.
Kyle Larson finds a voice of support in a veteran
Well, Kansas Speedway may have been entertaining, as the Next-Gen car works the best at the 1.5-mile track. However, the glaring issues can be visible at superspeedways like Atlanta Motor Speedway. The 2025 Ambetter Health 400 race was peppered with cautions and wrecks as drivers could not manipulate their cars well. Ryan Blaney had grabbed the pole with a lap time of 30.908 seconds and an average speed of 179.371 mph. The glaring lack of speed in these numbers is visible when you compare them with a legendary event 28 years ago. Long before NASCAR repaved the weather-beaten surface of AMS and lifted the banking to severe angles, Geoff Bodine created history. The jaw-dropping difference in speed is what convinced Kyle Larson to press for a rise in horsepower.
During the 1997 qualifying session, Bodine displayed 197.478 miles per hour, almost 10 miles per hour faster than the previous AMS race. That was a time when NASCAR drivers raced cars producing upward of 900 horsepower, compared to the present 670 hp. In a recent interview with Kenny Wallace, Ken Schrader reflected on this disparity: “In Atlanta, in 1997, 28 years ago, right? Geoff Bodine ran a 27.08 to get the pole. This year, the pole was a 30.90. Eh, that’s close to four seconds slower. Did Atlanta become a drafting track because they put 4 more degrees bank in it or whatever? No, they slowed the cars down so damn much that you don’t have to let off.” So Schrader agreed with Kyle Larson‘s demand: “So I think the cars do need more power.”
More horsepower – yes or no?
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Ken Schrader himself is no stranger to grabbing maximum speed. In a qualifying session for a 1999 Talladega Superspeedway race, Schrader reversed his 22nd fastest position in practice. He ripped a 48.421-second tour at 197.765 mph to reassert his early career reputation as a superspeedway driving
expert. What is more, Schrader has continued his tradition of speed long after retiring from NASCAR and full-time racing. At the age of 69 last year, he won 14 dirt races at 10 different tracks in 2024. Schrader also co-owns Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, a third-mile dirt track he has owned with Ray and Sue Marler for 30 years.
Clearly, Kyle Larson has the support of one of the sport’s experts. What is more, NASCAR has already delivered positive hints about paying heed to Larson’s concerns.
Ready to revamp speed limits
Well, Kyle Larson made his concerns clear after his Kansas victory. Chiming with his peers’ calls for a bump to 750 hp, Larson said, “I don’t know if it’s going to change the racing drastically or anything. It’s a decent size increase, but it’s not massive.” As it turned out, NASCAR executives delivered hints along the same lines of horsepower increase. Given the ongoing passing struggles with the Next-Gen car on tracks like short tracks, road courses, and superspeedways, ‘Hauler Talk’ hosts could not help but broach the hot topic. The 750 number, instead of the current 650, is a popular target number right now for two reasons. Firstly, the Gen-6 car used a tapered space that allowed 750. And that is also the maximum number that can be reached without significantly increasing costs.
Senior director of competition, Mike Forde, kind of predicted Kyle Larson’s incoming demands a week ago. He said, adding his concerns, “I’m sure that [horsepower] will come up this weekend, and that’s something that we’re going to look at seriously. You hear levels of 900, 1000 horsepower, whatever, I don’t know if that’s – that’s not on the table just because of the cost.” However, Ford Performance engine builder Doug Yates highlighted how the 750 number is doable. He said on Sirius XM NASCAR: “If we were to increase the power from 670 horsepower to about 750 horsepower, that probably wouldn’t be much of a change for us today.”
Clearly, Kyle Larson’s words are heavily relevant to important stakeholders as well as veterans in NASCAR. Let us see when they meet reality.
The post NASCAR Legend Creates Urgency Over Demands With Kyle Larson Rewriting History appeared first on EssentiallySports.
