Dale Earnhardt Jr Believes Chase Elliott’s Nemesis From Last Season Is Very Close to Making Texas Whole Again

Chase Elliott has been in the news of late for all the right reasons as he won the Cup Series race at Texas on Sunday. He must have liked the experience, but that can’t be said for the rest of the drivers, as many expressed their dissatisfaction, especially due to the condition of the track. From Denny Hamlin, who didn’t mince words when criticizing the track to others who blatantly deemed Texas as ‘treacherous’, there was a lot that unfurled after last weekend’s race. However, if there was one thing that played its part right according to Cup Series veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr, it was the Goodyear tires.

While that might not bode well with many, and especially Chase Elliott, who thinks tire changes don’t make much difference and it’s only the racers who matter, Junior would clearly agree to disagree.

Dale Earnhardt Jr urges suggests changes to Goodyear’s left tires

In a recent episode of The Dale Jr Download podcast, the former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion shared his take on how Goodyear is close to making things better at the much-contested venue. But how can Goodyear help make it better? Well, it turns out that the company makes different tire compounds for the left and right tires. As per the 49-year-old, at Texas, the right-side tires were doing their job and laying rubber down quite well. On the contrary, Junior also emphasized how the left-side compound was too soft, and that needs to be changed, at least initially, for the racing to improve, as per the veteran.

“Goodyear is right there, they’re so close. But I’m telling you, man, when I look at that race track and I see that right side tire doing such a great job putting rubber down and the left side actually keeping that part of the track clean. Once that left side gets to where it’s rubbering the track just like the right side is, and that entire groove from the apron, that entire bottom groove is covered in rubber, the balance out the groove on the bottom of the race track will get tighter and tighter. And the cars will have to slow down to make that bottom work. That’s when they’ll move up,” he said.

Most of the cars indeed seemed to prefer the bottom lane over the top. Obviously, the residual PJ1 traction compound at turns 1 and 2 near the top played a part in that but the softer tires on the left meant that the bottom lane was a lot faster. That was a reason why passing on the outside was so tough, even at turns 3 and 4.

More corner speed is not what drivers want, says 2-time Xfinity Series champion

You’d think that being faster is what the Cup Series drivers would want more than anything, but Dale Earnhardt Jr believes that it is not the case. While it’s good to be fast on the straightaways, high corner speed would make passing even more difficult than it already is. Plus, on a track that’s as unpredictable as Texas, it may even be a serious safety concern. To tackle this issue, Goodyear seems to have come up with a solution that Dale Junior further discussed.

“I would think they don’t want that left side to be soft because that makes the car fast. They can play with the right side being harder or softer because it’s just gonna wear out and fall off and slow down. But when they make the left side softer and that side of the car doesn’t take as much abuse and load as the right, putting a soft left side tire is just gonna make the car go faster,” Jr shared.

So, instead of just making the tire or the tracks better, what Junior suggested was finding a right balance of the two. According to the veteran, given how drivers are wary of corner speed, concentrating on the perfect amount of tire wear in addition to making changes to the bottom part of the track is going to give racer and fans all the action that they want.

“Drivers really don’t want more corner speed. That makes the racing bad, but if they can make that tire wear, it’ll only be fast for a moment. It’ll only be fast for a short period of time. 10 laps or so before it actually started to lose grip and slow down. But then you’re rubbering the bottom 3 or 4 feet of the race track making that slick. That balance change on that bottom groove is more significant to where getting up into that second, third, or even fourth groove, the car’s gonna have more turn, more speed, more speed down the straightaways, that’s when you’re gonna see the big runs, the blocking, the arguing that we want to see,” the NASCAR veteran added.

Having said that, what Goodyear perhaps now needs to focus on his making the tires wear exactly right so both fans and drivers can be satisfied. While fans would love to see a repitition of Bristol where tire management was ultimate strategy, drivers want hard racing. So, can Goodyear find that perfect balance? Well, according to Junior, they could very soon. However, what do you think?