On March 13, North Wilkesboro Speedway was buzzing with activity during a Goodyear Tire Test for the NASCAR Cup Series. The historic short track got its first new layer of asphalt since 1984, all set up with a race-ready mix just in time for the upcoming May 18 Wright Brand 250 and the May 19 All-Star Open and NASCAR All-Star Race. Now, there’s a bit of a stir around Joey Logano, one driver who tested the track. Some insiders are hinting he might have snagged an unfair advantage. And it looks like the NASCAR insiders are none too pleased, criticizing the organization for decisions that seem to skew the race results.

Well, not to mention, for Joey Logano, it was an added advantage since the win helped him set a record of leading more laps than any driver has in the race’s 40-year history. “We were so fast. We came here before for testing and ran over 800 laps and really figured out what it was going to take to win the race,“ Logano asserted.

An insider calls out NASCAR to level the playing field and prevent drivers from gaining an unfair edge

Back in March, Joey Logano from Team Penske, Ty Gibbs from Joe Gibbs Racing, and William Byron from Hendrick Motorsports were picked for the tire tests at North Wilkesboro. During those tests, Logano mentioned they used a thicker-gauge tire, similar to the ones used in the recent Cup Series race at Phoenix, as their benchmark. After a test run that showed a one-second drop-off over 25 laps, Logano noted, “Really good,” emphasizing that this control tire showed the most wear. “That’s probably the direction that the majority is pushing. I think at this point, we’ll probably make some verification longer runs tomorrow. But so far, everything seems like it’s going as planned.”

After the practice race, even Denny Hamlin admitted that the new ‘option‘ tire was performing well, offering a rapid pace. However, his teammate Tyler Reddick had reservations, noting that the tire’s performance didn’t quite meet expectations. This was highlighted during the main event when Joey Logano dominated by leading 199 out of 200 laps, needing only one tire change pit stop, which seemed to validate Reddick’s earlier concerns.

Since Joey Logano had already tested the track, he might have had a leg up on the competition. Bubba Wallace‘s crew chief, Freddie Kraft, didn’t hold back on his podcast, “Door Bumper Clear,“ questioning why active drivers are used for testing.

 He suggested, “If we’re going to Tire test- go take Kevin Harvick and go run you know all day long and let Kevin decide what tire we run you know to your point like even, even, if there, there is an advantage like we know whether you want to say it they made the difference or not there’s a big advantage to knowing and not only just for Joey but for the team to know you know.”

The choice of who gets to test is still up to NASCAR, but clearly, the tire strategy from the All-Star race might be something they will want to build on.

Goodyear’s got some work to do on their “option” tire

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This past Sunday, the softer, red-lettered “option” tire was the golden ticket at the All-Star main event, helping Joey Logano cruise to victory in the 200-lap showdown. The game plan was to mix these option tires with the sturdier, yellow-lettered “prime” tires to spice up pit strategies, but the results were a bit of a mixed bag.

Logano cashed in on the advantages of the red tire. He won the pole position during qualifying. Later, during the main event, his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, and four other teams chose not to pit after an early caution. While the rest of the pack switched to the yellow prime tires for the first 100 laps, the leaders kept their positions fairly stable without significant tire wear. Logano managed to maintain his lead after swapping for fresh reds at the mid-race pit stop; he stuck with them after another caution with 50 laps remaining and nailed his second All-Star win.

However, some NASCAR insiders, like Kyle Larson’s crew chief Cliff Daniels, aren’t sold on Goodyear’s approach, criticizing the non-fast-wearing design of the option tire. They believe Goodyear needs to buckle down and refine their tires to keep the races engaging. What’s your take on the whole tire test situation?