NASCAR has taken steps to improve its short-track package. There were high hopes of entering the recent Bristol race to see some entertaining racing. But it proved to be a Kyle Larson show after he led, 462 out of the 500 laps. Only eight times was the lead changed. Now NASCAR is heading to its shortest short track at Martinsville Speedway. And with so much at stake, they have yet again attempted to up the short-track package.

The cars at the Martinsville race will run on a new tire compound for the left tire. Goodyear is claiming it to be the softest one yet. The right tire would, however, be the same one we saw in the North Wilkesboro Speedway all-star race and then at Richmond. While NASCAR is claiming it to make things challenging for the teams, NASCAR veteran, Steve Letarte, thinks otherwise. Letarte has asked fans not to get their hopes too high!

Ex-HMS crew chief isn’t too excited about the new tire compound

Introducing a new tire compound is NASCAR’s attempt to enable more passing on the track. Softer tires equal higher speed but it also increases the tire wear. With a good amount of falloff, we are expected to get to see more passes being made. And the track position won’t become as crucial. Like how it worked out at Richmond, with teams having to choose between speed and durability producing some good racing. On the new tire, Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing, said, “We come to Martinsville with that same right-side tread compound as part of the setup teams will run, along with a left-side tire that utilizes the ‘softest’ tread compound in our tire lineup…We had a good test there in August and came out of it with this setup, which is another step forward on our short-track package.”

While NASCAR is hoping for the new tire compound to up the game, they aren’t a hundred percent sure that it will work. “We sure hope it creates some interesting racing, and how it’s all going to work out, it’s one of those deals where we’re really not going to know until we get them all out there on Sunday,” This is what NASCAR Cup Series managing director, Brad Moran said on the new tires. However, while NASCAR probably expects to produce some never seen before racing action, Ex-crew chief of HMS, Steve Letarte, doesn’t think it will happen.

According to Letarte, every time NASCAR has thrown a tire challenge at the teams this year, they have managed to overcome it. Letarte in the Dirty Mo Media podcast episode said, “We had tires at the all-star race that weren’t going to run 25 laps, they could have run them 200. Then we had tires at Watkins Glen, I mean they were going to slow down five seconds. You weren’t going to be able to race that whole nine yards. Like the garage area adapts, I’m not saying Goodyear’s wrong, I’m not saying their approach is wrong. I’m saying let’s give credit to the 36 teams, the engineers, the drivers. They are not out there driving with a freaking sledgehammer like they know what they are doing, they can feel the tire.” So according to Letarte, it’s going to be a good old-fashioned short track race. Perhaps our regular short-track masters, like Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, would dominate.

Heading into Martinsville, we have many championship favorites in the elimination zone, including Denny Hamlin. Martinsville had been the #11’s stronghold. The Joe Gibbs driver also happens to be the winning among the active drivers. Hamlin has won the Martinsville race on 5 occasions. Letarte thinks Hamlin is going to be dominant on the track as he understands tire management better than most.

Denny Hamlin’s chances at Martinsville?

Letarte further in the conversation said, “Someone like Denny, I actually think this suits Denny very very well. I think he knows how to use the tire on the restart, then settle in and save a ton of tire. So it may look a little different. But if someone is thinking it’s going to look like nothing we have seen the last four years then they are going to be disappointed it’s not going to completely change what it looks like.”

However, Denny Hamlin isn’t so sure himself. Ahead of the race, the veteran is hoping for the fall to be as much as NASCAR is claiming. Hamlin on the Actions Detrimental podcast said, “I wish I knew, because I would try to prepare for it. But we’ve got a new tire there that’s going to be the softest left-side tire that I think NASCAR has ever made, or Goodyear has ever made. The right-side is the, I think, like the prime tire softness. Hopefully, we get some tire wear. I mean that’s what we hope is that we have tires that wear out and then you start to see some comers and goers and lots of passing. That’s what we hope.”

Even though Hamlin has the maximum amount of wins, he’s not won a single race at the track in the next-gen car. His last win at Martinsville came in 2015. And in the spring race at the track this year, the JGR driver finished 11th. However, other than Martinsville, Hamlin has made good runs on short tracks this year. Winning both Richmond and Bristol in the spring. Currently, he is -18 points below the cut line; the deficit is not great, but the competition is tight. While the aim would be a win for the #11 faction, a top 3 finish could also be enough, depending on how the other drivers finish on the track.

Overall, it’s going to be a neck-to-neck battle to the finish. Which two drivers do you think will make it to the championship 4? Share your thoughts with us in the comments down below.