Flashback. Saint Patrick’s Day 2024. Bristol Motor Speedway. Denny Hamlin wins a chaotic race that was marked/defined by an insane amount of tire wear and dropoff. Shreds of tire rubber laid in thick piles at the top of the high banked corners of the half-mile concrete track Tires had a lifespan between 40 and 60 laps, depending on how hard they were being pushed. It was.. Interesting .
Ask any fan, writer who covers this sport, driver, or analyst, and they will almost unanimously agree that race was the single-most entertaining race at Bristol – whether it be Spring or the fall night race, in the better part of at least a decade.
Why was that? Tire dropoff. The increased tire wear made Bristol just like any small town short track in the world – a place where the race and how it was run was truly in the hands of the driver. Determined by how well they take care of their equipment and manage tire dropoff.
Goodyear was insistent in the aftermath of the race that the tire was not intended to be that “fragile”, but was a result of a different type of resin out down on the racing surface for grip. The resin did not react well with the tire compound and that caused the abnormal wear and tear.
Whether you believe the official story or not, doesn’t matter. But, what does matter is that day set in motion a new discussion about NASCAR’s ongoing efforts to fix the on-track product when it comes to short track racing. It led to the development of a tire that was first rolled out for the all star race at North Wilkesboro and used again at Richmond earlier this Summer – which has done as intended. But, not without a separate set of issues. That tire was designed for racing on flat tracks and asphalt surfaces. Not high banked concrete. Therefore, it cannot be used at Bristol.
So the hope and expectation coming into Saturday’s Bass Pro Night Race was that the product seen in the Spring race could be duplicated, perhaps by using the same tire or a similar compound that is a little more durable. After a midsummer tire test here, Goodyear determined that was exactly what they had lined up for this race – pretty much the exact same tire. But, it became evident fairly early in the weekend that might not be the case.
During practice, many drivers stated that they did not feel it was the same. The Xfinity series and truck series races showed the track to be more single-groove, which led to NASCAR making the decision to add some PJ1 resin to the track with the intention of adding more grip and helping the track to rubberize more quickly. The story is that they waited because the resin compound does not react well with the rain tires, but after seeing there was no rain in the forecast, they added it.
By all accounts, it sounded like we might get some semblance of a repeat of March’s race despite driver concerns. But, NASCAR’s plan to recreate the track conditions that day backfired. Hard.
Kyle Larson started on the inside of row one in 2nd position. Within 40 laps, he managed to clear his teammate – pole sitter and fellow playoff driver Alex Bowman, and never looked back. As a matter of fact, he never had a reason to look in his rearview the rest of the way.
Larson put on an absolute clinic, navigating traffic with ease with no driver ever able to close the gap on him any closer than about 2 and a half seconds once the race got into the home stretch. He led 462 laps – the most by a driver at Bristol since 1977, en route to his 28th cup series win and a ticket punched to the round of 12, which he credited in part to the fact he was able to run wide open rather than worry about trying to save tires and equipment for most of the race.
“I knew by lap 10 in practice that this tire would last a lot longer than the ones in the Spring. You’re out there visually scanning the racetrack, looking for marbles and stuff. I didn’t see any, so I was happy. I know you guys probably think that the race in the Spring was better, but, as a driver, I would much rather run 100 percent all night long for 500 laps than run 50%. I don’t think that’s much of a race. I grew up racing different types of cars where you do push (the equipment) the whole race, and I think Bristol is much more exciting when you run wide open”, said Larson.
Cliff Daniels was also in the camp that the track conditions were much more favorable without the tire wear issue and hinted that they factored in that this race may not mirror March’s.
“I think at the test back in July, there was some PJ1 that they sprayed on the track. Typically the PJ1 is a lot more residual than resin. I think some of what we saw in the last two or three days may have been some hints of residual resin. So with the reapplication of PJ1 tonight before the race, we knew that it was going to be different. I thought it was going to pick the pace up on the bottom. So we thought it was probably going to work the tires a little bit harder. But, iit just ended up being enough grip on the bottom to let the car hook and keep going without using up the tires a whole lot. I don’t think there were really many tire issues throughout the whole day. Maybe one had a tire go down, but, the setup was certainly a little bit of a guess, but nothing that different than what we would expect for typical Bristol – the Bristol before the resin and the tire that wore out in the spring”, said Kyle Larson’s Crew Chief Cliff Daniels.
Daniels did make a very valid point post race about how it would be practically impossible to recreate the Spring race and its track conditions.
“I think the simple answer for what happened from last fall to this spring to again today has a lot to do with ambient temps and track temp. The hotter that that tire gets, it starts to have a little bit of oil that comes out of the surface and tacks it up. And then that lays it down into the surface a lot better. Plus, we had two, three days worth of racing on the track this weekend before we (Cup Series) even got on track. So I think all those factors went into what we saw today. If I’m being honest, the race today played out very similar to last Fall. The overall scope of the race and lack of cautions, a lot of green flag runs and tire wear not really being that big of a thing”, said Daniels.
“I think it would be very hard to recreate this Spring again. A lot of folks may not remember, but there was a practice in Dover a year or two ago. That was a really cool day. And the tires looked a lot like what the Bristol tire looked like in the spring afterwards – really powdery and dusty. But the Sun came out on Sunday and then the track took rubber and it fixed everything. I think a lot of that is what’s at play here. Everyone is gonna have their opinion on what they want to see. But I just find it hard to think that we could sustain or recreate the environment of what happened in the Spring”, he later added.
Tire wear was never an issue in this race, making it feel as if it was the polar opposite of the March race, which no doubt, and very understandably, have the fans saying this race was botched. There were also only 2 cautions that weren’t for a stage break – a solo spin by John Hunter Nemechek when he got loose at the very bottom of the banking early on, and an instance where Joey Logano got turned in the middle of the frontstretch and went into the inside wall near the entrance of turn one.
But, despite the domination from Kyle Larson, lack of tire and pit strategy at play, and the long green flag runs that will have many voting “no” on Jordan Bianchi’s weekly “was this a good race poll”, there was a redeeming quality that made things interesting. The playoff drama.
The Bristol Night Race is not only arguably one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events – it served as the cutoff race for the round of 16 in the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs. And there was chaos A-Plenty (shoutout to The Beacon..) for the 4 drivers below the cut line.
Denny Hamlin had a strategy gamble with the playoff opener at Atlanta backfire on him, as he finished 24th and earned just 13 points trying to avoid the big wrecks anticipated on the superspeedway. He also had a bad run at Watkins Glen last week, involved in a wreck where he tried to go three wide into the ‘carousel’. All of that led to him being 6 points back from the cutline coming into Bristol.
Brad Keselowski entered 12 points ‘in the negative’, while Martin Truex Jr was 14 off and Harrison Burton was 20 back.
In short, Truex and Burton needed wins while Denny and Brad needed a good night for points. It did not take very long for Harrison Burton to see his run come to an end. He had to go to the garage early in the race after losing power steering. He managed to return, but over 70 laps down. Martin Truex Jr actually had all the makings of a good race in place. He finished stage one in 4th and stage two in 2nd. But, his race and his playoff run were completely derailed by a critical mistake – speeding on pit road. The pass through penalty cost him a lap and put him below the cut line, never to recover. Brad Keselowski found himself down a lap early, and he also never managed to get back on track.
In the end, it was Burton, Truex, and Keselowski eliminated from below the cutline while Denny Hamlin managed to leap over Ty Gibbs to take the 12th and final spot courtesy of his 4th place finish. Gibbs ended up crossing the line in 15th. With the points reset, Larson sits atop the playoff standings by 15 points over Christopher Bell. Austin Cindric, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, and Chase Briscoe are now on the bubble, within 3 points of each other. Cindric sits 4 points below the cutline behind Joey Logano.
With the first round in the digital rearview, the Cup Series will start the round of 12 next week with a mile and a half track, racing in America’s heartland at the Kansas Speedway. Green Flag for round 2 of the NASCAR Playoffs will drop at 3:00 on Sunday, September 29th, with TV broadcast on USA Network.
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