By David Morgan, Associate Editor
BRISTOL, Tenn. – It’s déjà vu at The Last Great Colosseum.
Since the spring of 2024, when excessive tire wear seemingly brought back the Bristol of old for the first time in the Next Gen era in the NASCAR Cup Series, the sanctioning body, teams, and Goodyear have all been searching for the right formula to replicate it.
On Saturday night, it appears they finally found the secret formula to make it happen again.
Goodyear brought a softer right-side tire than they had run here in the past with drivers and teams facing the unknown heading into a pivotal elimination race in the Cup Series Playoffs, but early on, it appeared to be a swing and a miss.
Friday practice and qualifying went off without a hitch, seemingly lulling the teams into a false sense of security, but after the green flag dropped on Saturday night, the tables turned and all hell broke loose.
It only took the first 20 laps or so for drivers to start complaining of tire wear issues, which became a common theme throughout the night, with all involved having to shift into tire conservation mode to be able to last throughout the 500-lap race.
The tire wear became such an issue that Goodyear even released an extra set of tires for teams to use with the real possibility of teams running out of fresh rubber as the night played out.
After calling the new tire a part of the “weekly science experiment” on Friday during practice and qualifying, Brad Keselowski was just as puzzled by the way the tire performed on Saturday, explaining that it made the race play out like the Bristol of old and should be something to be studied going forward.
“There was a lot happening tonight. First Goodyear, the tire worked, the temperature dropped to the threshold and we got a tire wear race,” said Keselowski. “It’s so freaking…I don’t know, there’s some scientist somewhere that could have a big study on this one.
“How like a five-degree swing of track temp changes it so dramatically. But I thought it was actually a really good race because of the tire wear. The bottom was dominant. A lot of bump and run passes. It felt like Bristol from 1995 in that regard.”
Even the winning team explained that they were thrown for a loop between the data they were getting on Friday during practice and how things worked out on Sunday.
“Chaos is probably a good word to start with. The craziest thing to me is after the practice we all had, some wear, but not like what we saw today,” said winning crew chief of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Adam Stevens.
“I would have bet my house that it would have been a long-run normal Bristol, run through the stages no problem, and that was not the case, and it was apparent very early on that first run that we were going to have problems.
“I’m not saying it’s not fun to run a race like that, but it would be a little bit more fun if you expected it, and after practice, I did not.
“It’s obviously cooler today, but it’s not like it’s cold, and the track temp was probably above the threshold that I would have guessed would have produced a race like that.
“I would say us and 99 percent of the field were not optimized to that. It was fun, though.”
Christopher Bell explained that he knew something was different early on in the race and dialed in to knowing they would have to be in conservation mode for most of the night.
“I keyed up on the radio, I think it was probably lap 20, 25. I had a couple weird moments inside the car that caught me off guard. So whenever the track is behaving normally and it’s taking rubber, you can slide the car around, and it just feels different,” Bell said.
“I had a really big slip lap 1 or 2, and then a couple laps — lap 20, 30 into the run, I’m like, man, I’m losing grip in a hurry here, and I keyed up and I said, I think we might have tire issues, and then I just saw the land mine of marbles up the racetrack, and that’s all she wrote.
“I thought NASCAR did a phenomenal job officiating the race this week compared to the last time or the first time that it happened and the last time it happened. I thought it was really fair, and yeah, I applaud them for allowing us to run through the green flag cycles, and I think that’s what puts on a really good show whenever you get into those circumstances.”
Bell added that the way the race played out with the sharp fall off in grip provided by the new tire compound, it reminded him of the races that have employed the option tire in the past, so they kind of knew how to react.
“So, while this race is very unique, it is also similar to the races that we’ve had the option tire at, meaning Richmond and Phoenix — maybe those are the only two places we’ve done the option tire,” said Bell.
“Whenever that happens, you have to have a set of tires laying for what happened tonight. If you don’t have a set of tires laying in the pits, you’re not going to win if a yellow flag comes out.
“We paid the price a little bit — not a little bit, we paid the price huge in the third stage there whenever we put nine-lap scuffs on. We went all the way back to the back, and we did that in order to save a set of stickers for the end, and you had to have them on the 4 to go or whatever to win the race.”
As for whether he wants to see this tire come back in the future, Bell noted that he wouldn’t be opposed to it happening, as long as it puts on a good show.
“Hopefully I think it shows well. It has to look good. But it’s total chaos. That’s whenever it’s fun. It’s not as fun whenever everybody is on the same tires and you’re just riding around half throttle,” said Bell.
“But the moment that the green cycle starts and everybody is on different pit cycles and strategies, that makes it enjoyable.”
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