Dale Earnhardt Jr. sounds off on tire performance at Bristol, responds to Rudy Fugle comments

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is always going to be up for good short-track racing. He enjoyed the Bristol tire wear battle last week. But there were critics. William Byron’s crew chief, Rudy Fugle, for instance. The NASCAR world was set ablaze by the tire debate once again.

For the most part, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a short-track racer. In his heart, he’d rather watch 500 laps around a half-mile oval than most other races. At least, it seems that way. There is a reason why he’s invested in the CARS Tour as an owner.

This week on the Dale Jr. Download, he talked about tires. The wear was severe, but it made for a great race. He also addressed Fugle’s comments.

“I think that one of the things to pull away from this is I think everybody loved the direction that Goodyear’s going. Maybe, uh, maybe it’s a bit extreme, but no one knows what track temp we’re going to have. There’s too many dynamic variables on any given race weekend to be able to say, ‘Okay, man, we brought a tire that’s going to run 70 laps if it’s 40 degrees.’ You know what I mean?

“So, I know um, Rudy [Fugle] had some comments on SiriusXM about like man, you know, he’s you know, he understands like the quest to get the tire softer and make, you know, try to affect how what the product looks like, but he would have like, you know, what is our objective? What’s the end game here?”

Dale Jr. reveals ‘problem’ with tire wear at Bristol

So, Dale Earnhardt Jr. can sympathize a bit with Rudy Fugle. The way the tires are acting is the opposite of what someone would expect. Earnhardt explained further.

“And the problem seems to be, well, we know now, you know, we had that race a couple, a year or two ago at Bristol that like confused the hell out of everybody because it was cool and we had massive tire wear,” Dale Jr. said. “For all my life, I always associated tire wear with heat and high temperatures. And if you were going to have a cool temperature, you would have less falloff, less wear, all those.

“It would, you know, cool temperatures weren’t conducive to good racing or wear. But now it’s the opposite. It’s the opposite. And it’s my opinion that the way they make the tire and the chemicals or the lack or chemicals, oils, and different things that were part of the process and infused into the rubber have changed the tire and how the tire reacts to different surfaces and temperatures.”

So, Bristol tire wear – good or bad? Should the drivers and teams always know what to expect from tires and a track before a race?