A mysterious accident regarding tire wear in the NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway has caused Goodyear to see the positives… Finally
“Kudos to the drivers, that’s what they’ve been saying. What transpired just reinforced what they’ve been saying.”
On Sunday, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the NASCAR Cup Series. The race saw a dramatic event as tires were on cords after just 40 laps.
We saw massive falloff. The pole time was 15.3 seconds but toward the end of a tire run, cars were running 18 second laps, or worse. That created a great race with tons of passing, a record number.
The why of that incident is still unknown. But, it created 42 lead changes, a high for any race at Bristol Motor Speedway in the history of the half-mile track, any short track ever actually.
Goodyear tested last June, developing a tire that was designed to wear. That tire was then brought to Bristol last Fall, where they saw more tire wear but nothing like they did on Sunday. However, both races used the same tire, with far different results.
Drivers have been calling for softer tires that wear, for years. Goodyear has been inching in that direction but Sunday was an extreme case of a direction they could go.
Greg Stucker of Goodyear called an emergency press conference during the race. They went into full PR mode.
Goodyear calls it a ‘tough situation’ but fans see a great Bristol race
Call it a happy accident as after the positive reaction from the fans and most of the drivers, Goodyear has slightly changed tunes. They’re now looking to go more in that direction, without going so extreme.
Greg Stucker reflects after Bristol tire wear issues
“For the past year or so, the drivers have been pushing us to be more aggressive in tire wear and let them manage the tire,” Greg Stucker stated via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“I’m not advocating that we have tire wear as severe as we saw yesterday, every race. But, I think it’s a place where we can draw a line in the sand.”
“It was a long day. But, we’re taking it as a positive, in what we can accomplish, if we go in that direction. But, certainly not as drastic as yesterday.”
“Guys back in Akron, they already started looking through all our manufacturing data. This is the same tire we ran last year. It’s the same D numbers but a different production run. We’re not taking anything for granted. Is there anything that could stand out that could make a difference?”
“A couple of the drivers, after the race, said, ‘You can’t convince me that was the same tire.’ And, we get that.”
“It just behaved differently, was that because of the tire itself, the racetrack. We’re looking at every piece of the puzzle to make sure there was nothing in our raw materials or in our processes.”
“Kudos to the drivers, that’s what they’ve been saying. What transpired just reinforced what they’ve been saying. And how important it is to put some of the control back in the hands of the drivers.”
“We take the positives from it. That’s our goal, to go in that direction. Not to that extent but maybe now we have some goalposts to work within. We’ll keep pushing in that direction.”
Goodyear isn’t panicking after the events at Bristol. Instead, they are now open to creating significant wear for the race this Fall.
“We have to go back and try to understand what happened. And we have to try to replicate that and make sure that it doesn’t happen again. So, we can go back with 80% [of the wear] or so in September.”
NASCAR reacts after accidentally creating more tire wear at Bristol
