Is Rubber the New Gold? NASCAR Says YES

I’m just going to kick off this article by saying this was one of the wildest races I’ve seen in the past few years. While some people may think shorter tracks are easier to run, short tracks are actually harder because you have to be thinking of the next corner you’re approaching before you’ve even exited the corner you’re in. That may not be a big deal if you’re running the track by yourself, but when you’re in a pack of 30 other vehicles, that becomes very challenging and mentally taxing to do for hours on end. This 500 lap race was at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, where the track is only half a mile long. One lap happens in about 15 seconds, and the cars max out around 132 mph. Because it’s so short, the fuel window is 190 laps. Usually that’s a relevant statistic, but as we saw in this race, the tires were the most valuable resource.

Bristol is unique because it’s not paved with asphalt – it’s concrete. This year the track chose to add a resin compound to the bottom of the corners in an effort to improve front end grip. Confusingly, it didn’t achieve that goal very well, and instead ended up contributing to tires being shredded at a much quicker pace than anybody anticipated. Though NASCAR and Goodyear haven’t yet publicly stated their theories on why this was the case, a curious by-product of the resin was tire rubber balling up and being distributed along the sides of the racing surface. This phenomenon is called marbling. While marbling has happened at races for years, nobody has ever seen this amount of it at a single track during a single race. Any driver pushed outside the groove, either on the inside of the track or the outside, would hit these marbles and slide like they’re on ice.

To make this race even more complex than just dealing with extreme marbling and tire wear, the resin completely wore off the bottom of the track before the end of Stage 2, changing the racing surface enough to affect racing lines. This kept the drivers on their toes as the racing lines continuously changed over the course of the race.  The stages were set at 125, 125, 250 – which I quite liked. Blaney took the pole and gave us an all Ford front row with Josh Berry starting second. We had another Camaro pace car this weekend, although a different package than the last few weeks. We’ve got plenty of action to cover, so let’s jump straight into it!

The cars went green with the sun high in the sky. While Blaney was able to hold the lead for the first 45 seconds (3 laps), Berry would take it from him on lap four. This was the first of what would end up being 54 lead changes over the course of the race – a NASCAR record. Byron got up into the wall on lap 21. Initially there was no caution for 2 laps, but then NASCAR threw the yellow for debris. He had a broken tow link, went a couple laps down, and never recovered the time he’d lost. The entire field was running the tires that they’d used for qualifying so everyone, except for Tyler Reddick, pitted to get fresh tires on the car. Staying out to move from 22nd to 1st, Reddick’s plan failed miserably as he was unable to keep up with the cars behind him on the restart and was quickly crashed into. Berry, McDowell, and Wallace all got into Reddick, and caused a small crash involving LaJoie, Allmendinger, Hemric, Hocevar and Smith. There were no pitstops under this caution, besides damage that had to be repaired on the 45. Likely due to the combination of Zane Smith’s involvement in the incident, and not being able to go into the pits for fresh tires after the incident, he blew a tire and shot into the wall on lap 70, which brought out another caution. 

The majority of the field went in for new tires, and this is when concerns started to develop as teams were already on their second set of only nine tire sets allotted for the entire race. At this point the tires that had already been used by the teams were well worn through with the cords showing. Fox’s anchor Jamie Little gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the tires coming off the cars during this pitstop, and commented “The concrete is shredding these tires like a cheese grater”. The racing up to this point had been exciting though, with 15 lead changes so far. Fox fed us a few different driver radio feeds as many teams were trying to figure out where to run on the track to save their tires the most. The evidence was inconclusive as cars running low were getting just as much tire wear as cars running high. Caution came out on lap 124 as Kyle Bush completely lost his right rear tire due to tire wear. Ty Gibbs won Stage 1 in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. 

As cars came in to pit over the stage caution, Goodyear made an announcement that they had enough extra tires for every team to have 1 additional set, if NASCAR approved it. Stage 2 got off to a roaring start as drivers had to experiment with where the good grooves were on the track. At this point, all of the resin had worn off the bottom of the corners, and the tops of the corners were full of marbles. We got another caution on lap 175 as Nemechek got into Logano. This caused a stacking effect through the field, and near the back Stenhouse Jr. slid into Hemric and Zane Smith. Most of the lead cars pit, and opted to get a combination of scuffed and fresh tires. Unfortunately, Ty Gibbs had a bad stop and went a lap down. On this restart we now had 50 laps to go in Stage 2, and NASCAR announced that it had approved the use of the extra set of tires from Goodyear, to be released later in the race.

Between the lack of resin, the extreme tire wear, and the marbles all over the racing surface, the track was very slick at this point. This is when we started to see drivers get really loose, and contact each other. On lap 202, Suarez, Blaney, and Haley got loose together – but there was no crash or caution. Ten laps later Jones, Dillon, and Hocevar contacted each other without a crash or caution. Another ten laps after that, the caution flew as Busch got loose due to a flat tire and spun. Gibbs got the free pass to put him back on the lead lap. Most cars pit under this caution and continued to experiment with a mix of scuffed and new tires on different sides of the vehicle. Forgetting Reddick’s play for position earlier in the race, teammates LaJoie and Hocevar stayed out to take first and second. But, fresh tires are king at this point and within four laps, they both fell out of the Top 15. As the stage wound down, Ty Gibbs battled Lagano and finally overtook him for the Stage 2 win. Stage 2’s Top 10 consisted of 5 Toyotas, 4 Ford’s, and a Chevy (Larson). In fact, Larson was the only relevant Chevy for most of the rest of the race as the Toyotas showed their true colors in being able to dominate the front of the field.
NASCAR released the extra Goodyear tires at this point for the Stage-end caution. All the cars on the lead lap pitted with the exception of Austin Dillon. Cindric nailed Keselowski on pit row but neither sustained heavy damage. As the final, and longest stage kicked off, the racing pace slowed by 10 mph.  Teams were now only halfway through the race and were already on their 7th or 8th set of 10 total sets of tires. It was at this point that the Toyotas really started to shine. Even though the 23XI cars weren’t doing well, all the Joe Gibbs Racing and Legacy MC vehicles were in the Top 15 proving the Toyotas still have superiority on most short and intermediate tracks due to their handling abilities. As of lap 309, all four of Joe Gibbs Racing’s drivers were in front; p1, p2, p3, and p4. On lap 310 we got a caution for a Josh Berry spin due to the rear tires wearing out. Most cars pit. Similar to the Stage 2 end, lap 313 saw 5 Toyotas, 4 Ford’s, and Larson’s Chevy in the Top 10. On lap 360 Hemric bounced off the wall with no caution, and 2 laps later Gragson bounced off the wall with no caution. Caution finally came out 8 laps later as Stenhouse and Cindric spun. The leap lap cars all pit again, swapping fresh tires to used ones trying to put as little wear as possible on every set they run. Goodyear was interviewed over this caution and said they think the extreme wear has something to do with the resin on the track this year. Lap 396 saw Blaney get loose. Chastain muscled him out of the way without a caution. By lap 400, Preece was the only one of my pics in the Top 20. Not a great race for my predictions over all, but props to RFK for both of their drivers achieving Top 10 finishes.

It was at lap 415 that the tire emergency became fully apparent. Numerous cars were getting loose every lap, and drivers were falling off the lead lap left and right. The pace was now topping out at 110 mph – 20 mph slower than race start! Drivers had to focus on nursing their tires in order to finish the race at all. Lap 428 saw Josh Berry begin the green flag pit stops, which took place over 25+ laps as drivers were using every last centimeter of rubber on their tires before coming in for a pit. On lap 436 Blaney got into the wall with no caution, and on lap 440 Bell got a flat without a caution. Multiple brake fires started as green flag pits continued, due to all the rubber buildup on the brake and suspension components. Hocevar hit the wall hard with 50 to go, but no caution came out. Only 5 cars were on the lead lap at this point, which honestly paints an accurate picture of how desperate these drivers were for rubber. Frustrations were running high among many teams as most of them were multiple laps down at this point. Because of green flag pits giving some cars fresher tires than others, Hamlin, Truex, Keselowski, and Berry carved their way through lapped traffic with relative ease. With Truex breathing down Hamlin’s neck for the final 20 laps of the race, it was crazy to realize that half of the Top 10 cars were a lap down. After an exhaustingly intense race, Hamlin claimed victory with his JGR Toyota teammate close behind. It’s been 20 years since a race finished with only five cars on the lead lap, and honestly I hope it’s another 20 before we see it again.

Honestly this is a pretty lengthy article for such a short track, but I don’t think I went overboard with it. What do you think? Please comment your opinions as I’m still adjusting how I write these. Let’s look at my favorite paint schemes, and then wrap this up. Both of the track House racing cars deserve a shout out for some beautiful graphics. I would highly encourage you to go online and look these cars over as there are a ton of details on them. Even though we hardly saw Bubba on the track, his car looked pretty sick. Last but not least Josh Berry’s bright orange car popped off the screen – which was good for him since he was up near the front for the majority of the race.

I’m releasing weekly articles of all types of vehicles! I’m also releasing weekly articles covering this year’s NASCAR season. Make sure to visit my profile to catch the articles you’ve missed! To see my latest photography work, go to StingerAuto.com or look up @Stinger_Auto on Instagram and Stinger Photography on Facebook!