Yates would like reduction in horsepower on cars

Support appears to be growing to cut Cup horsepower, thus cutting corner-entry speed, thus making for more side-by-side racing. David Hyder, crew chief for #21-Bill Elliott and the Woods, says putting restrictor plates on engines at tracks like this two-mile oval and California's Auto Club Speedway would greatly improve the racing. And Doug Yates agrees. "Nobody likes plates, but here [Michigan] you're going into the corners at 215 mph, which is ridiculous. And then you've got the tire problems at Indianapolis…..It's all just a physics equation – how fast you go into the corner, how much grip you have, and what that does to the tires. So I'm an advocate of taking some engine power away and making the racing better. Take at least 50 horsepower way. These Cup cars are overpowered today. We definitely need to take some power away. Every engine builder in this garage has made gains of 15 to 20 horsepower every year for 20 years…and we're going to gain another 15 horsepower next year. And it will cost us more money. The fans in the stands don't care if we've got 700 horsepower, 800 horsepower or 900 horsepower or 1,000 horsepower, they just want to see a good race. If we could take some power away, put more grip in the tires, it would make for better racing." mikemulhern.net