Jeff Burton 'proud as hell' of Goodyear after extreme tire wear race at Bristol

Last week, we had another severe tire wear race at Bristol. There were many critics, but Jeff Burton was proud of Goodyear. This right-side tire hadn’t been tested, mostly due to the MLB game that was held at the track. But it produced one of the most exciting races at the track in years.

NASCAR has been trying for the last three years to improve the product at tracks like Bristol. This tire has done that. Jeff Burton thinks that this is a step in the right direction.

On Door Bumper Clear, Burton praised Goodyear for the tire and the race it produced. He was very supportive of it, even if he felt the tires wore too much.

“That was what I was watching too is like, I remember specifically Erik Jones was sitting there in he crowd and he was sitting there running along and all of a sudden you saw him jump up in the second lane and then next thing you know, he’s like a half a lap back in just a few laps,” Jeff Burton explained. “That quick. And you know, look – that’s extreme. We’re all looking for falloff. That’s clearly on the other side of it.

“I’m good with it, though, because when you’re trying to get to the edge of the cliff and operate on it, you’re going to fall over it every now and then. I’m proud as hell of Goodyear for having the courage to say, you know what, if we have this problem, it’s okay. Because if we never, if we commit to never having a problem, then we’re going to have no tire fall off, right?”

Until drivers started to manage their tires, they were getting anywhere from 15 to 30 laps before they began to cord. It was a severe example of short-track tire falloff. There were some adjustments that a few teams and drivers were able to make on pit road and on the track, driving-wise. But for others, it was like swimming against the current.

Jeff Burton breaks down Bristol broadcast challenges

From up in the NBC broadcast booth, Jeff Burton watched and delivered the NASCAR Playoffs race to the fans at home. It was a battle of tires and there was a ton of chaos throughout he field and all night in the race.

When you have a track that is only half a mile in length and tires are ripping apart every 40 laps, it’s hard to keep up with it all. Cup Series drivers and teams were put to the test on the track. Meanwhile, Jeff Burton and his NBC colleagues had the task of keeping up with the race for the viewers on TV.

“Well, I think Steve Letarte, he had a good point,” Burton said on DBC. “At some point, we were during a commercial, he said, ‘Okay, we gotta be careful not to cover everything because we’re not going to cover anything if we do.’ Because there was so many different things happening at the same time. And I think that was the right approach. We clearly start – showed when people were pitting, tried to cover that the best we could. But there was no way to get into every driver and team’s day. It was just impossible.”

Burton has been around the sport for a long time. He was part of those wild and intense Bristol races of the past. He compared last week’s Bristol Night Race to those old-school events. Everyone fighting for the bottom lane, bumping each other, and getting close to disaster every lap.