The tire debacle during the 2024 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway began even before the race had hit the 100-mile mark. The rubber didn’t react well with the asphalt and for most of the drivers, the tire wear resulted in a disappointing day. But for a few racers like race winner Denny Hamlin and Stewart-Haas Racing driver, Noah Gragson, the experience was not the worst.
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“I liked it just because it was so much different, and I thought there was a lot of strategy from the driver’s input and how you paced your runs, so with the tires wearing out, it was definitely challenging,” admitted the driver of the #10 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I thought it was a lot of fun just being able to manage your tires like a Late Model race.”
Gragson grew up racing on short tracks of Pensacola, Tucson Speedway, and Greenville-Pickens. Hence, he is no stranger to managing tires while racing a car. “You’re always losing grip throughout a run and the more you can save, the more speed you could have at the end of a run,” he explained.
Goodyear still looking for the reason behind the anomaly
This year’s race at Bristol left the company executives puzzled. The tire they used for the Cup Series event was identical to the ones they had used during last year’s race in September. So what could have possibly gone wrong?
According to Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing, the teams had always wanted a tire package that would generate more tire wear and that’s exactly what they had gone for. “Now, we’re trying to understand what’s different,” he said. “Why is the race track behaving differently this weekend than what it did a year ago. It’s the same package. It’s the same power combination.”
What was indeed different was the traction compound that was smeared on the track. The governing body of Bristol Motor Speedway decided to replace the widely used PJ1 with resin, which wasn’t anything shocking as almost everybody in the arena of NASCAR today wants to move away from PJ1. So why did the track behave so differently? Unfortunately, that question remains unanswered.
