Kevin Harvick Blasts NASCAR Amid Shocking ARCA Cars Outqualifying Cup Series at Iowa—What’s Really Going On?

“But I think that the teams having as much input and the manufacturers having as much input and NASCAR has to keep them all the happy. … I don’t know how long you can let the short track racing suffer without making some — and I know they’ve been making swings at it — but they’re striking out.”

Passing was hard to come by at Iowa. NASCAR conducted a tire test in June at Iowa ahead of Sunday’s race at the 0.875-mile oval. Based on the results of that test, NASCAR and Goodyear decided to go with a tire that had never been used before in a Cup Series race. Tire fall off, there was hardly any. Denny Hamlin voiced his frustrations with the car. Now, Harvick has joined him.

“The ARCA cars ran faster than the Cup cars,” Harvick said. “… The Cup cars need to go way faster, especially at the short tracks. I don’t think there was anything more evident than this weekend in that the ARCA car outqualified the Cup car, and it was extremely difficult to pass. The slower you go, the harder it’s gonna be to pass. I know there’s talk about that much horsepower — we need THAT much horsepower. … There’s just no reason the Cup car should be the slowest thing there on the weekend. They should not be slower than ARCA.”

“I just think it takes away from being a Cup driver and in the end, the cars are so damn slow, they don’t race good,” Harvick said. “So, it’s very evident when you look at some of those places like Iowa when you’re slower than the ARCA cars. Like I said, I think they’re giving them that much horsepower instead of enough horsepower that it seems like a PR ploy to me.”

But on the subject of horsepower, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR‘s senior vice president of competition, said Tuesday that increasing horsepower in the Next Gen car at short tracks is a priority for the 2026 season. Harvick doesn’t think the horsepower increase will be enough.

More horsepower: NASCAR VP Elton Sawyer gives an update on 2026

Harvick can’t believe this happened. He went on a rant during Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast, calling for NASCAR to put more horsepower in the Next Gen car.

Kevin Harvick had a major issue with the NASCAR weekend at Iowa Speedway. The ARCA Menards Series cars ran faster in qualifying than the Cup Series cars.

When the ARCA Menards Series laps outpaced the NASCAR Cup Series cars during qualifying at Iowa Speedway, eyebrows didn’t just raise—they shot through the roof. Honestly, it’s wild to think that vehicles from a supposedly “lower-tier” series clocked faster times than the top dogs of the sport. Kevin Harvick didn’t hold back his disbelief, laying into NASCAR during Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast with a fiery demand: boost the horsepower of the Next Gen cars, especially on those tricky short tracks. Harvick’s frustration comes as no surprise—after all, slower cars mean less exciting races and near-impossible passing, which fans and drivers alike are fed up with. Even NASCAR’s VP of competition, Elton Sawyer, admits more oomph is on the table for 2026, though Harvick doubts if the tweaks will truly cut it. And beneath it all, there’s a tug-of-war involving manufacturers, teams, and budgets, making the horsepower saga as complex as a pit stop. The question is: how long can this slow-motion drama continue before it seriously undercuts the sport’s pulse? LEARN MORE

While Harvick believes NASCAR has been a holdup in increasing horsepower, he said that the teams deserve some culpability as well. More horsepower likely means more money; teams don’t want to spend more money, Harvick said.

“I think the teams are just as much a holdup as NASCAR,” Harvick said. “The fact that they’re going to have to spend money and change the things that come with that — everybody has a position, right? Toyota doesn’t wanna do it for this reason and Chevy and Ford are like, ‘Let’s do it.’ So, everybody’s posturing to get the best situation for their manufacturer.