What’s Happening?

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond will be a historic night, featuring a first for a NASCAR point race. To improve the racing product on short tracks, NASCAR will give the teams multiple tire compounds to help provide alternate strategies and hopefully create more variation in speed. However, what is NASCAR’s other option if the “Option” tires don’t work?

• The “Option” tires were utilized at North Wilkesboro Speedway during the NASCAR All-Star Race. While the “Option” and “Prime” tires saw a significant difference in speed during practice, it didn’t materialize during the race.
• The hope is that, at Richmond, the older racing surface will cause tires to wear out more. This would cause the softer “Option” tires to decay over a long time, while the “Prime” tires would last longer.
• If this does not work, NASCAR will have to look elsewhere for the short-track solution. However, is there an easy solution?

Can They Go Any Further With the Tire?

The race at Bristol in March proved that the Next-Gen car could put on a good short-track race without increasing horsepower. If the tire wear is drastic enough, the good cars can separate themselves from the others. One of the biggest issues with short-track racing today is that the cars are incredibly similar, making passing difficult.

However, if the Richmond race is North Wilkesboro 2.0 with little passing and variability in tire wear or lap time, where can NASCAR go from here with tires? Logic would say Goodyear could make the tires as soft as possible, but how much further can they go?

Bristol was a race in which tire wear was ultimately too extreme. If the tires are not durable enough, they pose a genuine safety threat to competitors on the track, so Goodyear has to strike a balance. How much farther they can go remains to be seen.

If they can go a little further without compromising safety, take it as far as possible. If not, NASCAR has to look elsewhere.

Would NASCAR Finally Increase Horsepower?

Aerodynamics is not the answer. NASCAR spent the first two seasons of the Next-Gen era experimenting with aerodynamics, and the cars are going too slow on short tracks for aero to matter that much anyway. Changing other potential issues like tire width and the brakes would probably require a major overhaul of the Next-gen car’s design.

That leaves one final lever: horsepower. The thing that NASCAR was called on to change for so long, but primarily for cost reasons, decided not to attempt the change.

More horsepower could increase tire wear, allowing drivers to be more aggressive with the cars. NASCAR increased horsepower on short tracks between 2019 and 2020, and the racing improved dramatically.

However, increasing horsepower is not guaranteed to be the magic bullet fans and drivers are hoping for. Tyler Reddick said in an episode of “Door, Bumper, Clear” last December that NASCAR would probably need to increase horsepower to around 1000 for a big difference.

Maybe NASCAR’s hand will be forced to make bigger changes or will just have to deal with the short-track racing product they have, especially if they’re not willing to increase horsepower.

If the “Option” tires do not work at Richmond, NASCAR may be forced to make more drastic changes. However, it would take a lot of convincing.

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