Denny Hamlin’s Driver Admits to Struggle At Bristol Which the Boss-Man Nailed for His Win

Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and their boss, Denny Hamlin, all had their share of struggles on Bristol Motor Speedway’s concrete track. However, Denny Hamlin managed to turn things around and snagged his second win, leaving his drivers in the dust. Bubba Wallace ended up at P29, with Tyler Reddick right on his heels at P30. Both drivers got tangled up in the track’s chaos, but so far, only one has openly said racing on concrete was a real battle.

Tyler Reddick says he never thought in the next-gen car he would have to think about tires, calling it ‘old school’

Tyler Reddick got a real lesson in tire management at the recent Bristol race, and well, it was quite a wild ride. He was leading the pack when he suddenly spun out, triggering a domino effect of crashes. Turns out, the tires were the real stars of the show, teaching everyone a thing or two. Despite the chaos, Reddick isn’t pointing fingers at anyone, not the drivers or Goodyear. Chatting with the DBC crew, he shared that this race felt like a throwback to the old-school Bristol, where you had to strategize about your tires way ahead.

“Yesterday’s race was not that it was a very different animal than I’ve ever seen it Bristol. Going back, I don’t know how far you know in time at Bristol. It felt very old school to me. It was actually a lot of fun. I know we were laps down, but as a driver, I’ve never been in a next-gen car and thought. Okay, I gotta take care of my tires. I gotta be thinking 30, 40 laps ahead, right?” he said. Even though his car took a beating and they finished laps down, Tyler Reddick found the whole experience kind of thrilling. 

But how can we forget the other half of the 23XI squad? With less than 100 laps left, things got really tight in a four-wide scramble. Briscoe’s Mustang got all snug on the outside, nudging Bubba Wallace right into Jones, who got a taste of the wall while Chase Briscoe skedaddled away. That tangle knocked Jones way back to 31st, trailing by over five laps, and left Wallace lagging in 19th, eventually ending up in 29th place by the race’s end.

Meanwhile, in the chaotic race that saw a staggering 54 lead changes—a record-breaker for NASCAR’s 1,385 short-track races—tire savvy was king. The senior drivers showed how it’s done, with Denny Hamlin steering his way to victory lane. Despite a bit of a tire scare at the end of Stage 1 that saw him drop to 13th, Hamlin showed he had the chops, leading a whopping 163 laps. The JGR crew, in total, dominated the field for 383 out of 500 laps.

Despite his own team’s drivers having struggled in the track, Hamlin, ever the strategist, kept mum about the tire tread troubles. Yet, he hinted that without some serious rethink on tires or track tactics, the cars themselves might need a big-time revamp.

Denny Hamlin kept his cards close to his chest when quizzed about the challenges at Bristol’s short-track

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This year, instead of the usual traction compounds, NASCAR decided to slap some resin on the track. Drivers were having a real-time trying to keep their rides under control during Saturday’s qualifying, and tires were shedding rubber like crazy in Sunday’s big race.

Read More: Goodyear to Blame as Tyler Reddick’s Spinout Causes a Multiple-Car Stackup in Bristol Carnage

But, when hit up for his take on whether he’d like to see every short track get the same treatment moving forward, Hamlin was straight-up: “Most of the answers you’re gonna get from me today, it’s going to be from a biased standpoint. We won the race. […] If you change nothing, if you change absolutely nothing about the tire, nothing with the resin and we came back next week, many teams would make big adjustments for their cars.”

With the next short-track showdown lined up for March 31 at Richmond, Hamlin’s words would hang in the air. If this kind of nail-biter is what we can expect from every short track, maybe NASCAR’s got less tweaking to do than they thought.

Read More: Puzzled Denny Hamlin Drops 6-Word Bomb on HMS Drivers’ Bristol Misery