Denny Hamlin’s Crew Chief Dissects Goodyear’s Bristol Breakdown as He Sides With NASCAR’s $3.61 Billion Worth Partner

While last weekend’s Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway delivered some of the best short-track racing in recent memory, Goodyear has come under fire from drivers for not getting the teams up to speed beforehand. The tire package for Bristol had a high rate of degradation, further worsened by the PJ1 and resin on the track.

Naturally, some teams felt the compound had caught the crews off-guard, prompting drivers like William Byron to request NASCAR and Goodyear do a better job at keeping them in the loop. With that said, Denny Hamlin‘s crew chief, Chris Gabehart, felt the community should go easier on the tire maker, revealing that the intentions are to deliver exactly what fans want in the long run.

Were the Goodyear tires the cause of the drivers’ troubles at Bristol?

Heading into the Bristol race, drivers were shocked to find out how quickly the tire seemed to degrade in qualifying and practice. With the concrete at Bristol returning for the first time in four years, NASCAR had also laid down some resin over the PJ1 to help with grip. However, the combination of the grippy surface seemed to be the perfect grater for the Goodyear tires. For the short-track race, Goodyear had settled on a tire compound that was intended to provide more grip as well, ultimately hampering the car’s drivability in the long run.

Ultimately, the lack of grip on the Goodyear tires became the punching point for a lot of drivers. However, Chris Gabehart felt this was a step in the right direction. The #11 JGR crew chief shared on SiriusXM’s NASCAR radio, “Talking about the chemical composition of the tire, even though Goodyear intended to make it the same as last fall, it’s possible that they didn’t exactly and weren’t aware of the sensitivity of it, but they also brought this tire last fall with the intent of wearing out more. That was a stated goal, and it was delivered.” 

For the September race, Goodyear had brought along a tire with the intent of introducing more wear. While this is what teams had themselves asked for, the package for the spring race in 2024 was the same. However, the track surface played a major role in increasing the wear, according to Chris Gabehart. He added, “But that must have moved them into a threshold that was really tight on tolerance somewhere, either track temperatures or chemical composition or otherwise, that for this time around, openly wore the tire out, arguably too much.” Although Goodyear had failed to strike the perfect balance this time, Gabehart cut the manufacturer some slack.

He concluded, “Goodyear is about a competition where NASCAR Cup racing is concerned. We want a tire that forces these drivers to make choices and forces these teams to make choices. That creates a different strategy throughout the race and makes it interesting.” While Gabehart revealed his fondness for Goodyear Eagle tires and their longevity for his street car, he believes, “That’s not what NASCAR Cup Racing should be about. So for me, it’s mostly about taking the pressure off of them and making the competition better.” 

Many veterans do not want the community to go after Goodyear, despite some drivers showcasing their grievances. Fortunately, the tire maker is wasting time in figuring out the ideal tire package.

Goodyear aims to recreate Bristol’s magic

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Keeping aside the woes of certain drivers, the weekend at Bristol delivered some of the most exciting short-track racing in recent memory, and Goodyear aims to recreate that magic. With the main goal of smoothing out the rough edges of the tire package, the manufacturer is focusing on figuring out what went wrong at Bristol. With the Bristol tire package dropping off significantly after 40–50 laps, there is room for improvement if NASCAR wants to satisfy all teams and drivers.

With that said, Greg Stucker, who looks after the strategic and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory and is the Director, of Race Tire Sales for Goodyear, shared with The Drive, “The drivers have been asking for higher tire wear to put more control in their hands by way of tire management, as well as with the crew chiefs to get the balance of the cars right. We tested at Bristol last June and took a step to create more wear and that’s what we brought for the September ’23 race with good results.”

During this weekend, Stucker was aware of the changes to the track from last fall, highlighting that the freshly applied resin may have affected the wear dynamics. He stated, “On Sunday, the wear mechanism was different for some reason. It wasn’t a structural issue with the tire itself—the tread was just wearing to where the grip went away.”

For the near future, Goodyear’s primary focus remains on figuring out how they can bring a balance of tire wear and performance to improve the short-track package for good. Greg Stucker concluded, “Overall, everyone agrees that tire wear is good for racing, and after looking back at this weekend we’re taking the positives out of it in that we want to have wear and fall-off, but maybe just not to that level.”

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After taking a look at all the stops Goodyear seems to be pulling to fully understand the dynamics of their tire package, do you think we will soon see