How NASCAR Playoff Standings Will Dictate Team’s Strategic Choices at Richmond This Sunday

Every driver in the NASCAR Cup Series field will have a different strategic mindset at Richmond Raceway this Sunday. With two different compounds of tires available this weekend, crew chiefs were left in an unknown despite a 45-minute practice session ahead of the 2024 Cook Out 400. The only sure-shot strategic element ahead of the 400-lap-race is that the tire choices made on track will depend on the playoff standings of the drivers and could have a direct effect on their postseason bids.

The prime tire is the yellow-lettered rubber that aids durability and longer runs. The option tire is red-lettered and sacrifices durability for more grip and speed. Teams get seven sets of prime tires and two sets of options allotted to them for the Richmond weekend. This means drivers and teams looking for stage wins will likely use their options tires for that purpose and will not save them for the finish.

For the first time in a points paying race – #NASCAR teams have two choices available to race with at Richmond! Which tire are you most excited to see drivers use this weekend? The yellow “prime” tire or the red “option” tire? pic.twitter.com/QN6BlmYG5U

— Goodyear (@goodyear) August 8, 2024

However, those looking to win the race outright will want to save the options. But then again, there have been multiple instances when unexpected cautions and longer-than-expected finishes have ruined the approach. Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Chris Gabehart precisely touched on the same in a recent interview.

“You tell me when the cautions are going to come out, and I’ll tell you the strategy you should use.” From his point of view, leaving the options lying around till the end of the race makes sense if a driver wants to be in victory lane. Defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney leaves it to the crew chiefs to make these decisions. “That’s why they get the big bucks tomorrow,” he joked.

“That’s the risk you always take, right, with tires”

Blaney will be starting the event from 11th place. He expressed wariness about how things seldom go as planned in such races. He said, “It’s going to be interesting to see if you’ve got one set left, and there’s 100 laps to the end. Are you going to throw on your final set? I don’t know. It just depends on how much they fall off the cliff. That’s the risk you always take, right, with tires.”

The previous race at Richmond does not instill a lot of hope that Sunday’s event will allow teams to make the best possible use of the option tires either. The March race had three long green flag runs – 91 laps, 54 laps, and a final 159-lap stretch. The finish came down to a yellow flag that extended the race by two overtimes.

This lesson will be at the forefront of strategy boards as well before the race as drivers gear up to take the green flag. It remains to be seen whether NASCAR’s tire experiment improves what has been the Next Gen Cup Series car’s Achilles heel, short-track racing.