The outcome of the slugfest that most NASCAR races are essentially comes down to an array of different factors ranging from strategies to aerodynamics. However, the one factor that perhaps dominates everything else in terms of importance is track conditions. There have been times in the history of NASCAR when a race had been postponed due to unforeseen events such as rain making the track unsuitable for driving.
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But is there nothing that NASCAR can do to ensure the seamless running of the cars even when it’s raining? Well, it can and it cannot. While it might sound confusing, here’s why that is true.
Traditionally, NASCAR cars have not been designed to race in the rain. However, about a little over a decade ago, the sanctioning body developed a rain tire for road courses only. Although these rain tires were used in the Xfinity Series earlier, they weren’t used in the Cup Series until recently. Fans would recall the race at the Charlotte ROVAL a couple of years back to have run on these purpose-built tires.
However, in a Joe Gibbs Racing video, veteran racer engineer Matt Faulkner explained why the 2021 race at COTA was the most memorable of them all. The ensuing rain had the officials decide to use the rain tires during stage 1 of the race. Several other rain-specific components on the car, such as windshield wipers, taillights, and mud flaps, were also tested.
However, the biggest challenge that the race posed was the visibility issue occurring from the large sprays of water coming from the tires running on the water-clogged tracks. Hence, to answer the question; yes, NASCAR does have rain tires to aid its races. But it’s not even that straightforward.
So where is the catch?
Faulkner said, “Even though there is a tire developed for road course racing in the rain, we do not currently have a tire that allows for racing in the rain on ovals, and part of the reason is more of the same like we saw the big water spray behind the cars at Circuit of The Americas. That water spray would be even worse at an oval track with conditions of close traffic proximity.”
Moreover, the speed, the bank angle and the loads on the tires at superspeedways and oval tracks are poles apart from those in the short tracks. Running the same rain tires that are used on the short tracks would most likely tear them up.
Nevertheless, NASCAR is continuously striving to introduce tires that would be a perfect fit for racing in superspeedways and ovals even during rain. And it has started with NASCAR currently developing rain tires that could be run on some of the smaller tracks, Martinsville Speedway for example. As a bonus, this could potentially help NASCAR run their races on the scheduled dates.
