Last month, the Cup Series race at Loudon, New Hampshire was one for the history books. NASCAR had finally fully adopted wet weather tires and used them to complete the 301-lap race to its entirety despite the track being damp due to heavy downpours. The gamble ended up being a highly successful one with drivers and fans both enjoying the experience. It was then that NASCAR made a promise.
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In New Hampshire, the promotion had made it mandatory for all the teams to run on wet weather tires when the race resumed after the rain delay. Though this decision was based on safety parameters, it was made clear that it did not want to interfere with tire choices going forward. “We’d like to just turn that over to the teams,” NASCAR’s VP of Competition, Elton Sawyer, said to the press.
“But as we continue to take small steps and learn, eventually, we’ll get there. We just want to do this in the safest way possible.” Little did many know for a fact then that the next step would come as early as in Chicago on Sunday. The second-ever Cup Series race in downtown Chicago was again hit by rain and forced the promotion to order teams to bring out their wet weather tires.
But this time, it let teams choose whether they wanted to start their races on the slicks or the treaded wets. What this leniency did was force drivers and teams to create their own strategies that ended up shaping how their races went. Not surprisingly, even those drivers who did not fare well were inclined to appreciate the promotion’s resolve to evolve its wet-weather racing product.
Drivers fall in love with wet weather racing after exhilarating race through downtown Chicago
Defending champion Ryan Blaney was one of those thrilled with the way the race went down. He said to NASCAR.com after securing a top-10 finish, “It was a crazy race from the start. Split strategies getting going on dries and wets and then ended kind of on split strategies with dries and wets, so yeah, pretty crazy race. I mean, we put dries on and luckily ended up 10th.”
The evolution’s brilliance was put fully on display in the final laps of the race when Tyler Reddick, who was on slicks, and Alex Bowman, who was on wets, raced each other for the win. The wet weather tires ultimately succeeded with Bowman capturing the checkered flag. Though he lost out on a potential win, Reddick was pleased with the race.
“I think giving us the option to go with the wet tires and the dry tires at the beginning added an element of stress that I don’t think we’re necessarily used to,” he said. “So that was fun to decide what you wanted to do at the start of the race there.” Not every driver could be as efficient as Bowman on the wet tires. But as NASCAR continues to learn from its wins and losses, so do the men behind the wheel.
