NASCAR’s tires have reached wildly opposite sides of the spectrum of reputation. After the Bristol race this year in March, Goodyear peaked in popularity. The high tire wear around the 0.533-mile short track challenged one’s tire strategies, and drivers loved the challenge. It seemed like the perfect solution for the Next-Gen car’s woes. However, we came a full circle from Bristol – now drivers are concerned about the tires, including veteran Kenny Wallace.

Since NASCAR debuted the Next-Gen car in 2022, several issues plagued the sport. For example, cars catching on fire jeopardized drivers’ safety. Although that has been overcome, now drivers face the possibility of double trouble – flat tires coupled with NASCAR’s inconsistent DVP rule. So Wallace predicted a massive change is underway.

Kenny Wallace foresees drastic change in NASCAR’s innovation

NASCAR has four types of tracks in the Cup Series – short tracks, intermediates, road courses, and superspeedways. With cars bunching up closer to each other on short tracks, it is harder to pass there. According to Denny Hamlin, this is due to some subtle features of the car: “They are not making any over-body aerodynamics, and it’s all underbody. So you’re not able to take air off their spoiler.” But now another feature has emerged as an issue – the tires. After Josh Berry got into a wreck and flattened all four tires, NASCAR towed him back to pit road and discontinued his run. The same tire problems plagued multiple drivers at the colossal Talladega wreck.

So Xfinity Series veteran Kenny Wallace upholds the flat tires as NASCAR’s newest headache. In an episode of the Dale Jr Download, Wallace emphasized that time is running out. “Here we are at the end of the year, and it’s still not fixed. And it could determine a championship.” He compared the Goodyear problem with Next-Gen’s other issues and ascribed it the highest priority. “Out of everything that’s wrong with the Next-Gen car…we’ve been through where it catches on fire, we’ve fixed that. Safety is much improved. To me, this is the problem that is gonna be the Mac-Daddy – how are they gonna fix this (flat tires)?”

During the Yellawood 500 race, drivers like Joey Logano sat for a long time on flat tires while NASCAR towed away Chase Elliott’s car for repairs. So Kenny Wallace harped on the importance of fixing the tires’ make first. “The geometry is already made for that low-profile tire…If that thing had a little bit bigger circumference, we wouldn’t be in this situation…Then when the tire goes flat, now we’re sitting on the bottom of the race car. So I think this is gonna be a hard one to fix…This could be the biggest re-design of the Next-Gen. I just don’t see us going forward with a man spinning out, having a flat tire, (and then he) can’t go.”

But this did not mark the first time that a NASCAR driver was concerned about the tires this year.

Tires did not excite at Iowa

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While the Bristol spectacle blew drivers’ minds, Iowa practice blew their tires. Earlier in June this year, a 63-minute practice session at the D-shaped oval circuit yielded a long string of flat tires. For example, Christopher Bell cut a right front tire, which damaged the right side of his car and sent him to a backup car. Then Ross Chastain blew a left rear tire and needed two tow trucks to tow the vehicle off. Several drivers ran only about 20 laps on the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway track before blowing tires.  Ty Gibbs blew a tire early in practice, while Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick cut right front tires late in practice.

Bell was concerned because a tire test earlier in May was completely different. “What’s even more concerning and makes it way more confusing is that we had three cars out here to tire test that did 50-lap runs and none of them blew a tire,” Bell said. “It is very, very alarming and there are red flags all over the place that we had so many tire issues today.” After posting his fastest lap on fresh tires, Ross Chastain was a little clueless about what happened. “There’s no telling what happened,” Chastain said. “We went back out and made more laps on another set.”

Evidently, NASCAR and the community have been clueless about the tire dilemma for a long time. If Kenny Wallace is right, then new changes may be afoot to fix the flat tire problem.