Will NASCAR’s Tire Option Turn Out to Be a Victim of Its Own Success? #CanadaFinance

NASCAR and Goodyear brought two different tire compounds to Phoenix Raceway earlier this month, resulting in an exciting and highly strategy-driven race that ended in a side-by-side battle for the win. It was a great success in NASCAR’s continuing fight to fix its once-beloved short-track racing product… but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a two-tire solution is set to follow at other races this year.

As Goodyear senior project manager Mark Keto tells Road & Trackthe high-wear red option tires used at Phoenix may instead replace more traditional compounds as the only option for short track races. According to Keto, Goodyear’s goal is to create strategy through intentionally-designed tire wear on just one compound rather than by making two different tires that wear in different ways available to teams on race weekend.

“Our goal is to not run an option tire, just to use it as a test tool,” he says. “Our ultimate goal is to get to one tire that achieves the high wear and falloff that the teams are looking for. We’re continuing down the path of testing to get to one tire, so we don’t have an option.”

Right now, it seems likely that the option tire used at Phoenix will be a blueprint for that one-tire solution. Keto says that Goodyear was “really happy” with the tire’s performance in that race. The tires proved to be “anywhere from half a second to eight-tenths of a second a lap” faster than the more conventional primary tires available that weekend, with “around 2.2 or 2.3 seconds of fall-off over a forty to fifty lap run” nearly doubling the fall-off seen by the primary tire. That helped create a wide variety of strategies and a lively race — just as both NASCAR and Goodyear had hoped.

NASCAR’s experimentation with races featuring two tire compounds started with the 2017 All Star Race, back when NASCAR’s biggest racing quality issues were at intermediate tracks like Charlotte Motor Speedway. The idea was shelved after the event, and the introduction of NASCAR’s Next Gen car greatly reduced concerns about race quality on those tracks. The new car instead struggles to put on a great show at short tracks and shorter intermediate ovals like Phoenix Raceway, leading NASCAR to explore package changes that could improve racing on these tracks.

Keto says that Goodyear recommended a two tire rule set for the 2024 All Star race at North Wilkesboro after a successful tire test with what would become that event’s option tire. That led to implementation at that race, then another race weekend test at Richmond Raceway. After both NASCAR and Goodyear were happy with those races, Keto notes that the two parties discussed potentially bringing a two-tire option to the championship race weekend at Phoenix. That was ultimately nixed because of the potential impact a unique rule would have on the championship-deciding race, but Goodyear brought the option tire from Richmond to this year’s spring race at Phoenix.