Destroking an Engine

The concept of "de-stroking" mainly falls into class racing requirements limiting engine displacement. Build a smaller engine to race in a particular class. Chevy did it in the Z/28s by putting a 283 crank in a 327. Whala, 302!
So why not use a smaller bore w/ a longer stroke you might wonder? Engine builders most often prefer an over-square bore to stroke ratio, meaning larger bore than stroke length. A lot of things come into factor here. Piston designs, air flow & ram effect into the cylinders, valve positioning, block preparation, & so on. There are mostly advantages in the higher RPM ranges as its been mentioned. Doesn't necessarily mean it will rev faster, but would produce its peak power at higher RPM. Depending on the intended application that is what they're looking for. Racing is about accelerating through the whole course as fast as possible & being able to maintain the amount of power to produce enough RPM for high MPH at the top end. Whether it be drag racing or at the end of the straight away in Nascar or circle racing. Big bore/ short stroke = higher RPMs & tighter powerband. Now you gotta have gears etc to match. Higher numerical rear end & close ratio transmissions. Not always practical for street driven cars. That's why we like our strokers. They give us lots of torque at lower RPMs & hopefully less broken parts.