NASCAR insider suggests change to Goodyear short track tires

NASCAR will make a change to the tires this week at Martinsville Speedway, going to a new softer left-side tire from Goodyear to see if it can improve the short track experience.

Doing so is something that has been part of the discussion around the sport for quite some time ago.

Just last month a pair of NASCAR insiders discussed what could be done with the tires to help improve the situation, though they ultimately landed on a different solution — perhaps one NASCAR might try in the event this weekend doesn’t go as planned.

“There’s a lot of sort of debate … crew chiefs throwing out their ideas and stuff like that,” The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck said on The Teardown podcast. “One thing that seems to be sort of a popular theory, and from the people I checked with, actually seems like it could work, although it’s not imminent in terms of changing, but could work, is to potentially groove the tires. Or have the tires have less tread, essentially. “

The rain tires are currently grooved, something that allows them to function well in the conditions. Could such a move help improve short-track racing?

Gluck explained how it might change things.

“Because if you have the tires the way they are now, you have the full contact patch,” he noted. “If there’s grooves in the tires, even small ones — essentially like the rain tires except to race on in non-rain — even though it adds up to maybe a couple inches total in between all that, that is that much less grip that you would be putting onto the race track. So maybe at some point they can figure out, hey, can we groove the tires?”

First, it’ll be interesting to see how the softer left-side tires play at Martinsville. In theory, it should help create more passing as drivers have to pit more frequently to change tires.

It should also introduce a significant strategy element, one that might even be time-based because of the fact that the tires will lay rubber down on the track and eventually slow the wear on them.

There’s one other possible solution Gluck suggested — again, a month ago — that could work if the Martinsville solution doesn’t.

“There’s also the sentiment that you’ve heard drivers talk about, could they go to a narrower tire?” he said. “This tire is so wide. And it sounds like that’s not out of the realm of possibility, but there’s all these wheels throughout the industry right now, so everybody right now would have to buy new wheels. Goodyear would have to change their molds in terms of making a different tire. Is that just for short tracks? Things like that. So that would cost a lot of money.”

In any case, we’ll see how the short-track equipment this weekend plays out. It promises plenty of intrigue.