Why NASCAR, Drivers Feel Need to Bring Option Tires to Richmond

• In addition to the wet tire, which is used on short tracks and road courses, NASCAR has decided to have a dry weather option for the Aug. 10-11 Richmond Raceway weekend.

• Richmond marks the first time an option tire will be available in a point-paying race and the teams will decide if and when they want to use it.

• At various times in NASCAR’s history, the competitors could choose tires from different manufacturers, i.e., Goodyear, Firestone or Hoosier.

With the equality that exists in today’s NASCAR Cup Series cars, drivers have maintained the short-track package needed something that allowed some competitors to come on strong during a fuel run while others faded.

Increasing the car’s horsepower has been at the top of the drivers’ list for more than a year, but then an unexpected situation occurred in the spring Bristol race. Tire wear was more extensive than expected and the drivers and their crew chiefs found themselves in a tire management race.

The result: One of the best short-track races since the current car was introduced in 2022 because the drivers were in control of their own destiny.

In addition to the wet tire, which is used on short tracks and road courses, NASCAR has decided to have a dry weather option for the Aug. 10-11 Richmond Raceway weekend. One, which will have yellow lettering, is the standard “prime” Goodyear racing tire. The option tire, which is softer than the standard tire, will have red lettering and will ideally provide faster speed at the beginning of a fuel run but wear quicker than the standard tire.

Theoretically, the standard tire would be preferred for a normal fuel run while the option tire, which is made from the same softer compound as the oval wet weather tire, would be the choice for a short one, such as a 10-lap dash to the checkered flag.

This year’s NASCAR All-Star race at the 0.625-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway marked the second time a tire option had been offered in the non-points event. It wasn’t successful the first time an option tire was offered in the All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway because everyone elected the same tires at the same time.

Richmond marks the first time an option tire has been available in a point-paying race and the teams will decide if and when they want to use it. At various times in NASCAR’s history, the competitors could choose tires from different manufacturers, i.e., Goodyear, Firestone or Hoosier, but this is the first time a single manufacturer will provide three tire options in a regular season race.

During the Richmond weekend, the teams will be given two sets of tires for practice, one prime and one option. A prime set must be used for qualifying, which will then be transferred to the race allotment. For the 400-lap race, each team will have eight new sets – six prime and two option. All four tires must match when placed on the car.

“I’m a big fan of this,” Daniel Suarez says.

“It’s no secret that it’s not easy to pass. Five years ago, you could have a speeding penalty and go from the back to the front if you had a great car. Today, that’s not the case. Today, it takes more work to be able to do something like that.”

Suarez said if the option tire is successful at Richmond, he wouldn’t object to its use at the short-track races in the playoffs.

“It’s a little risky. Big risks you always get big rewards,” Suarez says.

“In a perfect world, if a regular tire lasts 50 laps, I think the option tire should last half.”

Formula 1 and the NTT IndyCar Series use different tire compounds in a race. New tire rules regarding different compounds were introduced in F1 in 2016. IndyCar began using an alternate tire in 2023.

Denny Hamlin, who won Richmond’s spring race and possesses five victories at the three-quarter-mile track, understands why NASCAR is introducing the option or softer compound tire to the equation but he doesn’t like it.

“We’d (Hamlin and his team) rather just race straight up and let’s just see how it all plays out,” Hamlin says.

However, Hamlin applauds Goodyear’s efforts to develop a “better normal option” for short tracks and intermediate speedways.

“This has been a long time coming,” Hamlin says. “A lot of its success or failure is going to depend on what the tire does. Is it fast for just three laps or does it last 10 or 15? You’ve got to have it be faster for 10, 15 laps, and then really be slower 30, 40 laps after that. You’re gonna have to have that rubber mixture just perfect to do that. Every track surface we go to is dramatically different. You would have to create an entire tire chest for each individual track to make it do exactly what we’re hoping it’s going to do.”

NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney applauds NASCAR and Goodyear for trying something to improve short-track racing.

“We always talk about tires and they’re not easy to change, but it’s the easiest thing to change as opposed to bits and pieces on the car,” Blaney says. “We tried everything that we’re going to get on the car, so the tire thing is the next option and I think it’s a good direction.”