Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
A NASCAR Cup Series race with multiple tire compounds is coming to Richmond Raceway next month.
While the sanctioning body has yet to tell teams what the rules will be, orders have been placed for the option tires that will be run alongside the primary compound for the event at the Virginia short track on August 10-11.
This Federate Auto Parts 400 will feature the same combination used at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the All-Star Race, comprised of the primary left-side D-5208 and right-side D-5220 and the option left-side D-5224 and right-side D-5226.
Unlike freshly paved Wilkesboro, Richmond is the most abrasive short track on the schedule and it’s going to produce an interesting challenge for crew chiefs as the option tire should produce more speed but at a greater disparity.
But it’s also a night race, and this concept has been offset both times it was used, because of nighttime conditions in both the 2017 All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and at Wilkesboro in May.
Regardless, crew chiefs like Chris Gabehart of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 team endorse the idea and applaud both NASCAR and Goodyear for the efforts to improve short track racing with the seventh-generation platform.
“I mean, first off, I applaud ’em trying it,” Gabehart told Sportsnaut over the weekend. “I think it’s a good spot to try it. It’s not in the playoffs so a regular season race is the next logical step to try something like this at. …
“What I have gathered with track testing at Richmond over the last couple of years is that this surface responds really well to these types of changes, and then it degrades a good amount as we’ve all learned, so I think the racing could be pretty interesting.”
The best part about this concept, especially with a race prone to long green flag runs, and is much longer than the 200 lap All Star Race is that NASCAR is going to leave when to change tires completely up to the teams.
From that standpoint, it could look similar to the spring race at Bristol, which started the industry in this direction in the first place. That excites Cliff Daniels, crew chief of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team.
“I don’t expect them to control when you put on the (option tires) so that’s interesting to me from the standpoint that everyone could end up doing something different, which I think would be great,” Daniels said. “But there is also the potential that we could all end up playing the same cards at the same time but the fact that NASCAR is willing to give us the option tire and leave it open, I really think that could create a lot of excitement for the fans.”
The obvious question is whether or not the option tire will even be viable, only from the standpoint that Richmond notoriously chews up tires as it is, so will that tire even last long enough to make it worthwhile from a green flag run standpoint.
That was articulated by Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 crew chief Rodney Childers.
“I don’t feel like you’re really going to be able to put them on and make it very far,” Childers said. “It’s going to need to be a situation where it’s at the end of the stage with 15 to go so we’re like, ‘let’s put those on’ and maybe we try to save them for the end of the race, get a caution with eight to go, bolt them on and be fast as hell to the end.”
Childers wonders if the option tires will even last 20 laps before they are down to the cords.
That was echoed by Mike Kelley, of the JTG Daugherty No. 47 team, too.
“It just depends on how short of a run you need them for,” Kelley said. “The other tire falls off so hard that I don’t know that I will ever need a tire there that’s that aggressive unless it’s a really short run.”
The rumor Kelley heard is that NASCAR will allow teams to have two sets of the option tires for that race. He has some concerns, like he would on any other weekend over the data he will have access to compared to teams with Tier 1 affiliations, and how that could really challenge his approach.
But he also likes the idea conceptually from a race entertainment standpoint.
“I like that they’re trying it,” Kelley said. “I don’t have a problem with it at all. I think our short track package needs some work. I don’t think that tires are always going to be the answer. We’ve seen at Iowa that the pavement direction or resin, you can still have some entertaining races depending on the track but I don’t know that this is the one thing that will fix all the tracks.”
To wit, Gabehart is still beating the drum, long-term over increasing horsepower or reducing the width of the tire.
“It’s the horsepower to grip ratio,” Ganehart said. “And if we are not going to work on the horsepower then we have to work on how much grip we have.
“Interestingly enough, what we’re doing and what we saw at North Wilkesboro is actually giving more grip with the hope that it will fall off more and Wilkesboro didn’t. So this is only advantageous if (the primary) actually fall off more than the option.
“One wrinkle we will see that you didn’t have Wilkesboro is that you’ll have to run the (both) at times. You won’t have a choice. So even if the (options) happen to be magic, when you use them will be a wrinkle that we didn’t see at Wilkesboro.
“So I do applaud them for trying stuff. We have to see them get aggressive with it. I still really think tire width, and reducing that footprint is something we have to consider, again, working on the grip ratio side of the equation but I applaud that NASCAR and Goodyear is continuing to be aggressive.”
Without even knowing that Gabehart said this over the weekend, Daniels also credited him for being so vocal about the horsepower to grip ratio conversation.
“Chris Gabehart, in my opinion, has articulated this very well, where the cars are just over gripped and underpowered,” Daniels said. “So how do you solve that?
“Certainly adding a high grip tire with some fall off is an interesting way to do it. But at the end of the day, if we had less of a tire footprint to work with or a higher horsepower footprint to work with then that’s getting us over the limit of the tire, to where right now, we’re not.”
Chris Rice, president of Kaulig Racing and a veteran crew chief, thinks Richmond is the best place to do this.
“The (option tire) is going to fall off big time,” Rice said. “If you put that tire on and it goes green for a long time, you can either split the stage and pit once or twice so I’m pumped.
“I’ve been vocal about having a softer tire in general and I’m glad we’re trying it.”
Rice would take it a step further.
“Give us the daggone rain tire too and let us run that tire once a race, any run of our choosing because it has no stagger,” he said. “If we get a caution with like 10 to go, give the crew chiefs the option to run the option, the prime or a rain tire. They’re way smarter than me. Let them have at it.”
Baby steps first, which start next month at Richmond.