Remember when short tracks like Bristol and Martinsville were the heart of NASCAR where drivers banged fenders and tempers flared? Those days feel far off now. The Next Gen car rolled in three years ago, and it’s like someone flipped a switch. Intermediate tracks are thriving, but short tracks, they’re struggling, and it hurts to see.

The spring race at Bristol last year was a huge surprise. The return to concrete on a night race did something to the Goodyear tires that no one expected. There was excessive tire wear which forced drivers into saving the rubber on their race cars, whereas crew chiefs were working overtime to find the right strategy. When everything was said and done, it was Denny Hamlin who bagged a win despite 54 lead changes. And for once it looked like NASCAR had cracked the code in improving short-track racing, but this joy didn’t last long.

In the upcoming races at tracks like Richmond and Martinsville, it was back to basics. Hold onto the track position and that would be your ticket to victory lane. Martin Truex Jr. banked on the same strategy at Richmond and led 228 laps, but Hamlin and the late restart played the role of spoiler. Clearly, the tire wear phenomenon at Bristol was a special event and neither NASCAR nor Goodyear had a major role in the outcome of the racing that day.

So they went back to the drawing board and Goodyear brought out the new option tire at the All-Star race and at the spring race in Richmond. And the results were positive, even catching Dale Jr.’s attention, “Hopefully, we continue to see that develop as we go further along the schedule and racing at these short tracks throughout the rest of the year [and] Goodyear continuing to push the tire and get more aggressive with the tire.”

And, that is exactly what NASCAR and Goodyear did. Rather than restricting this new tire compound to half-mile ovals, they also brought it to Phoenix Raceway. This forced drivers and teams into different strategies and paved the way for more positive changes in getting the short-track package back on track.

NASCAR heading in the right direction with the short-track package

Christopher Bell beat Denny Hamlin by 0.049 seconds at the Desert Mile, completing his three-peat, the first in the Next Gen era. But apart from Bell’s historic triumph, the option tire also made the headline after the racing concluded on Sunday. Thanks to the softer high-grip option tire, Ryan Preece from RFK Racing was able to charge from 33rd to 10th in just 11 laps. He eventually finished the first stage in 3rd place, bagging some crucial stage points.

Veteran journalist Jeff Gluck acknowledged the positive changes the new package has brought. “this just now unlocked the true key to racing with the next-gen car because remember I mean it wasn’t that long ago where they’re like oh my gosh what are we gonna do we gotta try this different aero pack. We gotta try this the up-down splitter we’ve got a what are we gonna do we take off the underbody and downforce all stuff it’s the tires on the track this is unlocked so much whether for short tracks whether for road courses now this is the biggest track I tried it on a one-mile track it’s working it’s great.”

The race debuted a new short-track and road course package for 2024, first tested in 2023. It uses a simpler rear diffuser with fewer vertical strakes, a 3-inch spoiler (up from 2 inches in 2024), and a 670-horsepower engine. NASCAR kept the engine panel strake-free and used last year’s splitter stuffers to cut downforce. Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, NASCAR’s VP of Vehicle Performance, said in 2024, “At the test, we noticed an improvement in traffic. The car didn’t lose rear downforce when it yawed… drivers could slide around more.” The idea is to make cars less perfect, so drivers have to work harder and racing gets better.

Back in 2024, Ryan Blaney who had tested it, said after the Phoenix race, “The goal was being better in traffic. Drivers always say they’re terrible in traffic.” He crashed out, finishing 28th, but the race had 17 lead changes where the action was there. Hamlin, who finished second, said, “Our car was fast in clean air, but we ran out of track.” The package aims to help cars behind, yet passing wasn’t easy for everyone. Did it deliver this time? Bell led 103 of 312 laps and won a tight battle, suggesting the package didn’t hurt the leaders. But traffic was still tricky.

NASCAR uses three packages: short tracks like Phoenix get low downforce, speedways use a 4-inch spoiler, and superspeedways run a 7-inch spoiler with 510 horsepower. This Phoenix setup, used at tracks like Richmond and Martinsville (but not Bristol or Dover), makes cars tougher to handle. They had also added a tire twist with two sets of fast “red” option tires and six sets of regular “yellow” ones. Justin Haley, after an early wreck, said, “They make you feel great. We should use them everywhere.”

Well, given how different all the racetracks are on the NASCAR schedule, it’s tough to see this application work everywhere. While the teams had different strategies and worked their way up the field, in the end, the top running cars #20, #11 and #5 were on the final two-lap shootout. Sure, the option tire can force the field to make decisions, but Bell’s triumph was proof that you need a good set-up, and an equally abled driver behind the wheels to make a difference on the racetrack.

This is where this quote by Bell ahead of the race perfectly sums up the current state of NASCAR racing. “The option tire. Does it produce comers and goers? It does, but if you’re not good, then you’re gonna do the opposite, right? So what do we want the champion to be? Do we want the champion to be the best car, or do we want it to be the guy that sucked all race and saved a set of red tires that got the lucky yellow?”

Bell’s teammate, Denny Hamlin also made some interesting points after the disappointment in Phoenix. While he did appreciate NASCAR’s newest innovation, he couldn’t help but identify a loophole within the process.

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Is NASCAR onto another gimmick to hide Next Gen car’s flaws?

Denny Hamlin has to be the biggest advocate who has time and again appealed to NASCAR to improve on-track racing. He wanted more horsepower for the race car, a demand that NASCAR hasn’t entertained. But since then he’s changed his stance and asked Goodyear to bring a better compound to solve the short-track racing woes.

While the result in Phoenix is something that NASCAR can build on, Hamlin couldn’t hide his true feelings about the option tires. “I’m probably going to be too much of a purist for you guys. I just, we have so many novelties as it is, Lucky Dogs… Green-Light Checkers. We’ve done everything we can in the sport, rules-wise, to make it entertaining. I don’t know. I’m just too old school to tell you that I want options for tires. It’s just another way that the best car will not win.”

Hamlin might be right, there were just two sets of red option tire throughout the race. While we’ve seen the likes of Daniel Suarez at Richmond last year and Preece at Phoenix last Sunday making most of the compound, it’s just a shot-in-arm kind of thing as the tires degrade quickly and force the drivers to go back to primary hard rubber. There’s also the possibility of teams saving the option compound for late-race drama and making significant gains, snatching a win from a deserving driver. Hamlin’s isn’t again the new tire compound, he wants NASCAR to make this tire non-optional.

“Me and Dale Jr. believed for the longest time that Goodyear has the keys to NASCAR Cup Series racing, and I think it’s evident that we were right. We got tire falloff, we finally got them to put some soft tires on the car. The results from the racing we’ve seen speak for itself.” Hamlin added. So, the next thing NASCAR needs to implement is to try to see whether or not they can see out a race only on option tires. This could certainly change the way how the teams and drivers approach racing on short tracks and one-mile ovals.