By: Zach Arnold

BRISTOL, Tenn. —- The NASCAR world experienced an unusual Bristol race day that hasn’t been seen in years on Sunday. Rapid tire fall-off was the story of the weekend, producing an entertaining race with fans on the edge of their seat.

Tires and grip level became a major topic in Bristol a day before the race on Saturday, after the Cup Series drivers felt the track for the first time during practice and qualifying. Qualifying is when things became weird. It appeared as if the track completely changed, and many drivers had little control of their cars during their solo laps. Carson Hocevar, Chris Buescher, Kyle Larson and more all had a moment where their cars seemed like they were going to spin out

Before the race weekend, NASCAR laid resin on the track instead of PJ1. This decision was made after a test was conducted at Bristol after last year’s fall race in September.

NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Martin Truex Jr., spoke to the media after his qualifying lap and described practice and qualifying as “difficult.” Truex Jr also said he did not learn much from the practice and qualifying session and he did not know what to expect for the race.

“The track was obviously in terrible condition for our practice, really slick, really hard to get a read on it was just really difficult,” he said. “It made it hard on how to know what to do in qualifying so that hurt me a little bit.” 

After the Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday night, NASCAR elected to reapply resin to the track surface for the Cup Series race on Sunday.

Once the race began, it did not take long to see how fast tires were being worn out. Rubber from the tires was spread across the top groove of the track, lap times became slower, and cording appeared on almost every tire after pit stops. It became so rapid that drivers and teams were begging NASCAR to allow Goodyear to supply them with an extra set of tires, with fear that it would be a struggle to save enough to make all 500 laps. “NASCAR, I think we’re going to need more tires … if you can help us with that.” Cliff Daniels said over the radio.

NASCAR agreed to allow each team an extra set of tires; luckily, Goodyear had enough to spare at the track. Goodyear’s Greg Stucker was surprised with the lack of grip and tire fall-off and spoke to the media during the race in saying, “Still a bit of an unknown as far as why it’s not behaving the same way the track that is… that’s kind of what we know now, obviously everybody is in the same boat… but it’s still a tough situation.”

After the race, we listened to what drivers had to say. Alex Bowman mentioned he supports having races with a lot of tire management, however, Sunday’s race felt that it was too much. “I’m all for tire management, I think today the situation was a little too far, but it was something different, and more like a chess match,” Bowman said after he finished fourth.

Truex Jr., who finished in second place in Sunday’s race, described how managing tires during the race felt from the driver’s seat.

Race winner, Denny Hamlin, mentioned he felt more proud of himself after the race, and the driver had a larger role in Sunday’s race due to the skill of managing tires in saying , “This the first time a driver has played a huge role in a long, long time. A long time.”

It will be interesting once September comes around for Bristol’s second race date on the 2024 schedule. The big question is whether they will bring the same tire package to other short tracks or switch it up before.

NASCAR heads to Texas for the sixth race of 2024. Catch the action in the Circuit of the Americas on FS1 next Sunday at 3:30 pm EST.