NASCAR Cup Series races on the short track oval have become a hot topic of debate after a stale display at Martinsville. The biggest issue with the package was how little to no tire wear came into play during the race. This is a contrasting result when compared to the tire wear fest that drivers had to deal with at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It is rather confusing to see the same tire compound behave in such a drastic manner on a similar racing surface. The promising signs at Bristol were something NASCAR was hoping to see come to fruition at the next couple of short-track races; unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. But what was so different about the tires at Bristol, and what changed at Richmond and Martinsville? Joey Logano had the answer to this mystery, connecting it back to his testing last year at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Joey Logano explains the success behind Goodyear’s tire wear at Bristol
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In a long time for the fans, the short track race at Bristol was a welcome change to see drivers having to make strategy calls with excessive tire wear. It was something NASCAR was looking to achieve with its new short-track package and allow drivers to make critical calls and decide their fate with the results.
Initially, it was presumed that the resin sprayed on the inside of the racetrack led to excess tire wear. However, Joey Logano has now come to the conclusion that temperature plays a vital role in tires behaving in such a manner. Speaking on SiriusXM radio, the Penske driver said, “It’s just the temperature was different right, cooler out at Bristol, and it created wear, and the same thing happened at the Wilkesboro test. It’s crazy to me that 10 degrees is everything, like we’re living on a fine line.”
He further explained how different the testing was at Wilkesboro. “In the morning, we went out there. It’s 50-something degrees, we run 25 laps, and we drop off almost a second. I was like, Whoa, it’s like real fall of here, tire is graining… And then, it got to about 11 o’clock in the afternoon, the sun came out, warmed up to 65 degrees or so. I’d run 25 laps and not fall off a tenth, but I was like what, the graining went away.”
Logano has asked NASCAR officials to intervene and change the current state of short-track racing, especially with the tires.
Logano wants NASCAR to act swiftly to improve short-track racing
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During the Cook Out 400 race, the #22 Penske driver was running with an interesting strategy. He decided to run with the same set of left-side tries until lap 185, close to the end of Stage 2, and did lead 83 laps with the same strategy. One might think that his changing the tire after the long run would be because of the wear, but that wasn’t the case at all.
“The last 20 laps, the left rear started coming apart, but it wasn’t because it wore off. The wear pins were still there. It started delaminating, like the tread started coming off. It didn’t wear down to the cords. The tire was fine outside of it chunking apart. That’s not OK.” Logano said this via SiriusXM radio show.
Knowing that NASCAR won’t budge on the demands of an increase in horsepower, Logano wants the governing body to make swift changes to the tires to improve the state of racing. “It’s pretty clear to me that NASCAR does not want to give us more horsepower… So, do something and do it now. Hurry up. Do it now. Try it. At any point, I think any of us would be willing to go test anywhere and do some crazy stuff and try it. We’ve just got to do something big now.”
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What are your thoughts about the new short-track package rolled out by NASCAR? Also, do you think that a change in tire compound is a quick solution to improve short-track racing?
Joey Logano Exposes Goodyear’s ‘Too Good’ Invention That Has Worsened NASCAR’s
Short Track Woes
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