Six NASCAR Cup Series teams participated in a Goodyear Tire test on a warm and muggy Tuesday at Bristol Motor Speedway, in preparation for the crown jewel Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Saturday, Sept. 21.
The challenging 500-lap race is the cut-off race in the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 16 Playoffs. Following the race, the Cup Playoff field will be trimmed from 16 eligible drivers to 12.
Goodyear conducted the test following a highly-competitive Food City 500 in March, where teams faced a different Bristol challenge and had to manage tire wear throughout the race. Denny Hamlin won the race and said it was the most fun he has had in quite a while.
“This is the first time the driver played a huge role in a long, long time,” Hamlin said. “It’s a different philosophy than we are used to. Mostly cars on the bottom are running hard all the way around and then today there was driver technique that had to be a major part of it. I’m so proud. I feel like I played a huge factor in the result. It’s one of the more-proud races I’ve had in my career.”
The following drivers participated in the test: Former Bristol Xfinity Series winner Chase Briscoe, 2022 Night Race winner Chris Buescher, Bristol Xfinity Series race winner Austin Dillon, Justin Haley, Corey LaJoie and John Hunter Nemechek, who finished a career-best sixth in the Food City 500 this past April.
Below are select quotes from the test:
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevy, Richard Childress Racing: “Goodyear realized the PJ1 was very helpful for the tire and made it live a lot longer. The resin that they ran last time doesn’t seem to let the rubber lay down and it just dusts up. Laying rubber down you can run longer runs. The tire felt fine and we had good lap times. The tire did fall off quite a bit. Over 30 laps it was almost a second, pretty good falloff. That’s pretty good, really. That’s falling off fast enough to where if your car is a little better than the next guy, you can kind of manage the tire and pass the guys in front of you. We started early at 9 a.m. today and temperature always plays a little bit of a factor, but we thought it would lay rubber faster because of the heat and usually when it’s colder it takes a little longer, and it didn’t happen. Goodyear and Bristol had to put the PJ1 back on it and that seemed to solve a little bit of the tire wear issue. You have to manage things. Extreme case was the last race here (Food City 500, March 2024) where you were running slower to make a 50-lap run, that was somewhat fun. It was different. If you told us that was going to happen we would’ve managed it better, but that’s what made it a pretty good race.”
Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Ford, Stewart-Haas Racing: “It’s hard to say how much you can take away from a test, but when you think about it there wasn’t much rubber laid down with only six cars here. It’s weird, I don’t quite understand how the spring race played out like it did. It would be different if that was the first Next Gen race we ever had here, but we’ve ran other races and never had that problem. Now it’s like a thing to figure out. It’s definitely interesting, but also a lot of fun. Early in the day we could run 25 to 30 laps and there at the end I ran 40 laps. If there were more cars here we would’ve had more rubber. It does create a unique challenge and it puts a lot in the driver’s hands. We don’t really have this other places we go. It’s a little struggle from my standpoint since I came from dirt where tire wear isn’t a problem. I ran every lap as hard as I possibly could today. It is a lot of fun because the driver can make a bigger difference. When we come back for the Night Race it will be cooler. The one thing that’s odd for me is that we were in 85-90 degree weather and still didn’t have that rubber build up or that color change. I will let the guys who are way smarter than me figure that out. It’s head-scratching for sure, trying to see what’s changed here in a year. At the Night Race I think you will see the same typical same Bristol racing where we start at the bottom early and then by the end you can run the top and bottom.”
Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford, RFK Racing: (How did it go out there today?) “It’s a lot hotter today and it was very cool the last go and thought that in itself would help our cause a lot. Not that our last time here was bad, you want tire wear and you want to manage things, but it was a little bit on the heavy end of it. We were kinda hoping with a warmer temperature we could make it to that 40-60 lap window and control your own destiny if you can save some tire. We felt like there was still some heavy wear, so they put the PJ1 down here about halfway through the day. I vote for the PJ1 and I’m a fan of it as long as it stays on the narrow side. The PJ1 seems to wear out through a race weekend and the hope is that the groove will move around to where we will start chasing the middle and the top. Again, it’s not like we were blowing a bunch of tires here last time. The catastrophic failures were those that tried to push beyond what was reasonable on cords. There’s a common ground in there in my mind. We needed a hotter day on track to be able to compare data. There are enough theories around it and some of the issues to have enough heat in the race track, even if it is cooler when we come back and run into the night. Ultimately, we will be able to go more toward the spring setup, but it will also depend on what we do in terms of track setup.” (Still thinking about Kansas and getting in the Playoffs?) “Not dwelling on it, but it comes up a lot in highlight reels right now. It’s not our highlight, it’s Larson’s. We’ve been really good lately, and we were good at Pocono, a place that’s been challenging to us over the years, and we are close to doing all the things right. We just have to figure out how to win one of these things.”
John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota, Legacy Motor Club: “Anytime I can come to Bristol and get some laps in is super exciting and being able to be a part of this test and try and learn something and figure out what we need when we come back later in the year is the goal. We will go back and debrief and talk about it. (How much tire falloff are you comfortable with?) “I know I am probably one of the few, but I really enjoyed the spring race (Food City 500 in March), it made the driver have to save tires instead of going all out every lap and try to predict where the falloff was going to be and there were crew chiefs making strategy calls, like whether to pit under green. Some people say it’s chaos I guess, but overall, I thought it was a great race. From a spectator standpoint I went back and watched the race (on TV). I thought it was great.” (Does a hot day like this alter the tire data?) “The temperatures definitely play a factor in the racetrack and how much it changes your balance in the car. I feel like when we come back we will have a little cooler conditions and we may have a little bit different of a race track.”
On Saturday evening, Sept. 21, the crown jewel Bass Pro Shops Night Race will showcase the Cup Series Round of 16 Playoff elimination race (7:30 p.m., USA Network, PRN Radio) under the lights as tensions will be high. The NASCAR Xfinity Series regular season will finish on Friday night, Sept. 20, during the running of the Food City 300 (7:30 p.m., USA Network, PRN Radio). NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. is scheduled to compete in the Food City 300 for the second straight year. He led 47 laps of the race last year before a short in a wire ended his night.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will get the fun started on Thursday night, Sept. 19, with the running of the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics (8 p.m., FS1 and MRN Radio). The ARCA Menards Series will open Thursday’s racing to make it a doubleheader night with the Bush’s Beans 200 (5 p.m., FS1 and MRN Radio).
For tickets, please visit the BMS website or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158. For a limited time, tickets can also be purchased at your neighborhood Food City store.
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