Why is Everyone Talking About Tire Compounds?
What’s Happening? Between the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing, the Charter Agreement, and driver penalties, tire compounds found their way into the…
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Entering a major playoff race at Martinsville, it’s easy to overlook any other storyline in NASCAR. However, there is an important story happening at Martinsville this weekend, one that can affect the type of racing at the track and, maybe, the championship as a whole.
What’s Happening? Between the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing, the Charter Agreement, and driver penalties, tire compounds found their way into the…
Throughout all the crazy stories this season in NASCAR, tires somehow seem to keep popping up. This year, Goodyear and NASCAR rolled out an initiative seemingly out of nowhere to test a new tire compound at short tracks.
This option tire made its debut at the North Wilkesboro All-Star race. At this race teams qualified on the prime (usual) tire and had to start the race on the option tire. While North Wilkesboro’s surface did not eat away at the tires in the manner Goodyear had hoped, they gave it a second shot at Richmond.
With two sets of option tires to use at Richmond, the older track surface helped create the type of racing Goodyear and NASCAR wanted. Now, Goodyear is tripling down for Martinsville.
The right-side tire used at Martinsville is the option tire used at Richmond. But, to shake things up, Goodyear is bringing an even softer tire for the left-side. Teams will have two sets for practice, one for qualifying, and ten total sets of tires as opposed to the normal nine on race day (including the qualifying tires).
So why all the sudden changes?
When NASCAR moved the Bristol Spring race from dirt to concrete, many fans dreaded another predictable Next Gen car race. Since the introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022, NASCAR‘s once-great short-track product has fallen off tremendously.
However, those who tuned into that Bristol race were treated to a race similar to a late-model race at an old short track. Lap after lap, tires shredded and fell apart as drivers wrecked, spun, and pitted throughout the race. The drivers who performed the best were the veterans and the short-track racers who were used to conserving tires.
For NASCAR, this seemed like the answer to a prayer. Fans unanimously agreed that this might be the best short-track race in the next GEN era. So, to create more strategy and inherent drama, NASCAR and Goodyear began testing with softer tire compounds using the aforementioned All-Star race as the testing ground.
A softer tire compound creates more fall-off, leading to more race and pit strategies. If a driver wants to pull away from the field, they can. However, that is at the risk of shredding through their tires faster than the rest of the field.
If a driver wants to hang around mid-pack and put it all on the line late in the race, they can do that at the risk of not being able to make up lost ground.
This is supposed to create more on-track excitement. However, when NASCAR brought the same tire back to Bristol last month, they got the exact opposite result. Now, NASCAR is trying this once again at Martinsville.
There’s so much on the line Sunday at Martinsville. So, is this the appropriate time to test another tire combination?
Besides the championship race, the Martinsville playoff cutoff race is perhaps the most important race of the playoffs. With everything on the line in this race, tire strategy could make the difference between a championship season and eighth place in points
For clarity, NASCAR has tried to create more tire strategy throughout the playoffs. Beyond Bristol, Goodyear brought a softer tire to Watkins Glen, as road courses have had similar passing issues in the Next Gen era.
Much like the “super soft” hype around the Martinsville tire, the Watkins Glenn tire was supposed to have tremendous fall-off. However, while it did the job it was supposed to, the tire failed to have the rumored amount of fall-off.
To Steve Letarte said on Dirty Mo Dough this week that the tire might not make the difference as much as the teams.
This is very applicable for this week, as teams will be able to adapt to a longer practice session. This means the new tire will not be baptism by fire. Perhaps easing any worry about major playoff implications. Furthermore, Denny Hamlin, this week on Actions Detrimental, said he is hopeful at the prospect of this Martinsville tire.
The biggest opposition to using an option tire has come from Christopher Bell. However, he said during NASCAR playoff media day that he would be opposed to using multiple compounds in one race, similar to what NASCAR did at Richmond. NASCAR is refraining from doing so and has implemented this softer set as the only tires for the race.
It appears that the drivers seem ready to improve on the short-track racing product rather than hold off on new compounds. Of course, depending on how the race goes, this could always change. By Monday, this topic could have a change of tone.
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