VP CTR registered, “Circle-Track Resin,” simply known as “The Resin” has become the culprit of an unlikely mystery, as of late. The “synthetic compound” developed to help tracks “rubber in faster,” was in action at the Bristol Motor Speedway, as it claimed the new Goodyear tires in extreme fashion resulting in a record-breaking 54 lap changes across 16 drivers in a race that saw Denny Hamlin claim back-to-back victories on Bristol’s controversial concrete.

The track underwent testing in February last year, when “The Resin” replaced PJ1 Trackbite on the “lower groove” of the track, for the first time in the Food City 500 this past Sunday. Now, Goodyear has decided to involve the owners of the track since 1996, Speedway Motorsports, LLC, or SMI for short in this unresolved conundrum.

Goodyear beckons to the owners of Bristol Motor Speedway

Zane Smith suffered first from being unable to manage his tires, due to the unpredictable amounts of rubber claimed on the 0.5366-mile oval. He was followed by many with Richard Childress Racing duo, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, as well as SHR’s rookie P2 qualifier Josh Berry finding themselves in the mix.

Even race-winner Denny Hamlin himself was hurling accusations after practice, with his signature irony, stating that someone must have “p*ed” in the tire compounds for them to be so incidentally bad. During the race week even the Director of Racing at Goodyear, Greg Stucker had to address the disbelief as he had stated: “Obviously, something’s different now.”

To add fuel to the fire, in recent discussions with SiriusXM’s NASCAR Radio, Stucker revealed that “a couple of the drivers after the race, told us (Goodyear) ‘Look, you can’t convince me that was the same tire the way it behaved.’” He resonated in agreement echoing his comments earlier. As the conversations evolved, Stucker, however, let the NASCAR world in on some important developments involving the very owners of Bristol into the mystery.

“Obviously, the resin was put down on the racetrack instead of the PJ1 which was done last year. We haven’t really decided if that could be a factor yet. That’s one thing that we’re looking at. I’ve already been in contact with Steve Smith at SMI and the racetrack earlier today, just talking about the prep of the racetrack ahead of the race. Was there anything they did differently (like) washing the racetrack or anything like that? So you know, there’s a lot to go through.” 

This throws an incredible wrench into the works of this mystery as the 66-year-old partnership reaches shaky grounds. NASCAR, however, had other things to say.

Is any of it NASCAR’s fault?

The developments on this situation will unfurl soon, as the sanctioning body along with Goodyear and SMI investigate the developments further, but as Stucker explained with determination. The entities involved are “certainly looking at every piece of the puzzle” from their perspectives to ensure there is no tampering or accidents on their part.

He explains, “As of yet, we’ve not uncovered anything, all the compound physicals are all perfectly in line with what we raced last year, but we’re not going to stop until we’ve kinda turned over every stone to make sure we’re comfortable with what we had there being the same as what we expected.”

But it seems like NASCAR has taken part of the blame upon themselves, as the senior VP for NASCAR, John Probst explained earlier: “We actually removed a set of tires from the fall race coming into this race. That’s on us, not Goodyear.” But as he later went on to emphasize, the Food City 500 did in fact emerge as one of the best races of the season. The discussions and mysteries will have to wait until the season roars back to life in Austin on March 24th, when NASCAR takes center stage in the Lone Star State.

Read More: “That’s on Us”: NASCAR Senior VP Acquits Goodyear of Bristol’s Tire-Management Controversy Despite ‘Record-Setting’ Verdict