NASCAR Drivers on the Curious Case of Bristol Motor Speedway’s Tire Falloff Discrepancies

The 2024 Food City 500 was one NASCAR Cup Series event that did not garner any backlash from the fraternity, but instead earned praise from the fans of the sport. The racing community was thrilled to see drivers struggle on the 0.5-mile-long oval earlier in the year as comers and goers during the race made for an exciting event throughout.

The same came courtesy of a tire compound that stock car racing’s official tire supplier Goodyear bought at the facility. The same compound saw unprecedented levels of falloff during the race, with many old-time fans comparing the race to events of yore.

The governing body has been trying to replicate something similar this weekend, albeit with slightly less extreme falloff numbers. However, after the practice and qualifying sessions throughout the weekend up until now, the feedback from the drivers is anything but positive and similar to what they felt in Spring.

“I don’t know what in the world’s going on. We went from not thinking we could make 40 laps to thinking we can run 1000 laps on tires,” opined RFK Racing owner and driver Brad Keselowski.

Hendrick Motorsports driver and winner of the pole award from Saturday’s qualification efforts, Alex Bowman elaborated on the topic on similar lines saying, “I didn’t really see any unusual wear, they don’t fall off that much. Definitely curious to what the variable is there. I think we’re kind of normal Bristol again.”

Further information on how the same compound of tire felt this time around, Ross Chastain also touched on how its evolution took place during the practice sessions, or the lack thereof. “We ran through that first run and we all got to lap 20, 30. I’m like waiting on it to slip but we ran over 50, almost 60 laps, like old Bristol.”

The consensus as to why such behavior is being exhibited by what is the same Goodyear tire compound from earlier this year is the presence of rubber build-up on the track, as well as the presence of traction resin or PJ1 on the racing surface this time around.

With both the aspects of the racing surface interacting with the tire differently, ‘The Last Great Coliseum’ and its banked concrete surface seem to be nursing tires despite drivers and teams wanting the opposite. It remains to be seen what this does for the racing product come Sunday.