At the end of the Cup Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, NASCAR fans were left happy and asking for more. While not every driver agreed with that point of view, eminent media personality and one of the sport’s commentators, Jeff Burton, claimed that it was a step in the right direction. Well, for all we know, he could be spot on, as it was one of the most entertaining short-track races in an excruciatingly long time.

The level of tire wear at the race was extreme, to say the least. Every single driver faced issues and a lot of them complained as well. But, at the end of the day, the top 3 were the 3 oldest drivers in the competition and it was not a surprise to see their experience clinch victories.

Insider hails NASCAR as he paints a positive picture of the future of short-track racing

Ever since the Next-Gen car was introduced, NASCAR faced several issues on short tracks like Bristol and Martinsville to name a couple. It turns out that tire degradation could be a solution to these problems. The organizers did come out with an aero package to improve the situation, but no one saw this coming. Now, it will be up to them to make changes to the tire compounds or the track surfaces and pair them with the aero package in a way that is manageable for the drivers and just as entertaining for fans.

As per Jeff Burton, “Tire wear was excessive, it was too much. But even though it was too much, it was a step in the right direction. No one wants to see tire failures to this point but the same token Marty, when you’re pushing the issue, when you’re on the edge of things, sometimes you cross over it. I think Goodyear, I think Bristol…honestly, it should be applauded that we got over the edge. Now understanding how we got to the edge and the backing it up some, not only for Bristol but every other short track race, that’s really what has to happen going forward here. if we can figure that out, then it will certainly have a positive impact on short-track racing”. 

Burton’s wishes will likely come true as the reaction from both Goodyear and NASCAR has been fairly positive. The tire maker recently commented about how things went at Bristol and turns out that it was the drivers who pushed them to make the tires wear, though probably not to this level.

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Goodyear’s director of racing, Greg Stucker, recently spoke to SiriusXM Radio and said that they had not expected such a drastic change in the quality of the tires. However, given the reaction of some of the drivers, NASCAR, and most importantly the fans, their aim is to find a balance so that the degradation is not as extreme as it was and fans too can be as entertained as they were on Sunday by short track racing in the Next-Gen car.

“For the past year or so the drivers have been pushing us to be more aggressive in our recommendations to be more aggressive in tire wear and let them manage the tires over the course of the run. And I think that’s what we saw yesterday. Tire management was key. It was probably the most important thing of anything in the race. Now, I’m not advocating that we have tire wear as severe as we saw yesterday every race. But I think it’s a place where we could draw a line in the sand and I think we can learn from that,” Strucker said as per NASCAR.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next short track race NASCAR goes to this season. Chances are that tire degradation was due to the Bristol track surface more than the tire compounds. If that is the case then there wouldn’t be more of the same on other short tracks like Martinsville. But still, there was a lot to be positive about after the weekend’s Cup Series race.

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