Dale Earnhardt Jr. praises Goodyear for getting aggressive with Bristol tire: 'Not helpful to their bottom line'

Goodyear’s new, softer right-side tire delivered the kind of tire wear in this past Saturday’s Bristol Night Race that NASCAR was hoping to see at its short tracks. Almost immediately into their runs, drivers were forced to manage the tires which were cording rather quickly.

The result was a race which featured frequent lead changes and passes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. praised Goodyear for getting aggressive and making a tire that could potentially negatively affect their business.

“Kudos to Goodyear for getting aggressive, we asked them to. For a tire manufacturer to make a tire that wears out, that fails, that will be something you need to manage, is not helpful to their bottom line or it is not helpful to them selling tires at a tire store on Monday. So, what we’re asking them to do is almost a detriment to their actual business model. Goodyear doesn’t make money building racing tires, they don’t,” Earnhardt said on Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download. “The Goodyear racing tire business is supposed to be a compliment to their brand and their ability to sell tires to customers on the street. And so, making these tires wear out and fail, it’s a risk to their brand.

“Goodyear also knows that the drivers are the big sounding board, so if they get out and speak negatively about the tire, that then is also problematic to their ability to sell their tire to a customer on the street. The customer hears what the driver says and thinks, ‘Well, Goodyear’s product isn’t very good, or they don’t know how to build a tire, I probably should go get a different tire.’ So, Goodyear got very sensitive toward all of that after Indy years and years ago. We had the Indy tires that wouldn’t go 10 laps — after that race, Goodyear said never again, we’re gonna build the hardest tire we can make. We’re gonna be very conservative, we’re not ever going to take any chances of having this happen again.

“It’s taken all of those years to get them sort of to come back to the drawing board and say, ‘Alright, man, we’ll go for it. We’ll try to make a tire that’s going to be a problem or gonna be a challenge.’ It’s helped and it’s also nice that the drivers are all understanding, I think the industry is understanding of the effort, right? You’re not getting out of the car and going, ‘Damn, this is a dumb idea. Awful tire.’ That’s important.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Bristol tires: ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’

Goodyear struck gold in the spring 2024 race, which saw 54 lead changes and 3,589 total passes under green flag conditions. Goodyear failed to replicate it in the following two Bristol races, but they figured it out — and then some — for Saturday’s race. It appears the temperature, which was mid 60s throughout the race, made the difference as the tires showed minimal fall off in Friday’s practice session.

The industry asked for a tire that would wear more, and Goodyear delivered. Earnhardt doesn’t want to see NASCAR or Goodyear change a thing after what he saw at Bristol.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Earnhardt said. “… I talked to a driver this morning and they loved having the opportunity as a driver to maybe do it better than the guy in front of them. That’s never really part of the game anymore. At a lot of races, you just fire off and you’ve got the car that you’ve got and if it handles better, you can drive it the way you want.

“So, here we are at a racetrack where you have a new variable or an old variable that’s been missing of the driver feeling like, alright, if I’m smarter, than maybe I don’t cord my right front as soon as this guy here who’s being a little more reckless.”