Goodyear reacts to success of Phoenix option tire in Cup Series race

Goodyear brought a new option tire to Phoenix for the NASCAR Cup Series race and it worked wonderfully, adding strategy to the race. Drivers were able to make moves on the option tire and use it as a way to move through the field. Not everyone used it the same way.

Now that we have this softer tire, let’s just use that for Phoenix. Give them however many sets they need for a race and let them get after it. Goodyear made the racing at Phoenix watchable this time around.

Let’s face it, things have not been very exciting at NASCAR’s championship track lately. But this option tire gave that to fans. We had cautions, the most DNFs for the Cup Series at this track.

Afterward, Goodyear was happy with the results. They should be:

“Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the Option tire worked very well,” Mark Keto of Goodyear said, via Kelly Crandall of RACER. “It gave teams a chance to vary their strategies as to when to use them and maximize their effectiveness to gain track position over teams that were out on the Prime tires.

“Teams were also able to manage their Options once they got track position and make them live longer into a run. Overall we were very happy with the balance and strategy of the Prime/Option tire set-up, and how it added to the racing all day.”

Goodyear has had these option tires at a few tracks now. Phoenix showed that Goodyear knows what they are doing with these experiments and it can add to the racing product overall.

Christopher Bell dominates on new Goodyear tire at Phoenix

Three weeks in a row and Christopher Bell remains at the top of the NASCAR mountain! ANOTHER win, this time at Phoenix. He won this race a year ago and he has won it again. Is this the year of the 20 team?

Joe Gibbs should have let Christopher Bell go dirt racing years ago. In the last two years, Bell has started to establish himself as the second-best driver at JGR. However, this season, he’s staking the claim as the best.

The win at Atlanta was for being at the right place at the right time. COTA was a beautiful performance of closing out a race late against top-tier competition in William Byron and Kyle Busch.

This week at Phoenix, it was a pure flex. Option tire, primary tire – didn’t matter. Christopher Bell ran down Joey Logano in Stage 2 on the yellow tires while the 22 had the red tires. He was on another level compared to the rest of the field.

Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson put up a fight but it wasn’t enough. Christopher Bell took Hamlin to the line, kept it clean, and won his third race in a row this season.