Tire Wear vs. Horsepower: Joe Gibbs’ Stars Divided by Drivers’ Biggest Debate in NASCAR

“We didn’t need more horsepower today,” said Denny Hamlin after his win at Bristol Motor Speedway earlier this season. It was strange to hear him say that, but given the nature of tire wear racing, perhaps he felt racing would be better going forward. Thus providing tire wear as an alternative to the demand for more horsepower.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, as the racing was just the same as before, and Bristol was just an exception. NASCAR has held its ground on not budging with more power for their engines, leaving tire wear as the only solution for improving racing. But as far as the young JGR drivers are concerned, they are not sold on the idea that tire wear is the way to go forward while speaking on the Happy Hour podcast.

Joe Gibbs Racing stars share their thoughts on tire wear at Bristol

Interestingly, the line-up at JGR is a mix of seasoned race car drivers like Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. Meanwhile, they also have young and rising talents like Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs. When managing the race on Bristol’s limited sets of tires, the veterans of the sport were on their A-game. Meanwhile, the two young stars struggled to keep up with their teammates.

Trying to get a perspective on where the drivers stand on the debate, Kevin Harvick coined the question, “Tire wear or Power?” Knowing that NASCAR isn’t going to bend with their power demands, Martin Truex Jr chose tire wear, detailing how the tires corded at Bristol. “The left sides didn’t wear at all at Bristol, right sides were gone. So even that out, we could do 60 laps, no problem, tomorrow, 100 percent.”

However, Christopher Bell felt the brunt of the cording of his tires quickly and was baffled at how Hamlin and Truex Jr managed to keep running longer. “I left Bristol frustrated because I felt like it was crew chief’s race. And Denny drove the car properly, Martin drove the car properly. I’m following these guys, running the paces as these guys, and way under the tire… I’m looking at data and all of our stuff is pretty much line over line, and you have some cars that make it and some cars that don’t make it.”

The race winner, Denny Hamlin, chimed in with his solution to strike a perfect balance of tire wear in upcoming races. “Bristol’s a little extreme; there’s no question about it. You want to have certain aspects where you can go 100 percent. I agree; at max, it was like 90 percent on any given lap. But again the teams could make adjustments; if nothing changes. We can go back to same tire, same conditions. I have full faith the teams would fix most of the problem.”

This wasn’t the only time the drivers were at odds with each other, as Harvick asked them about their opinions on the restart zone. Providing them with two options to choose from.

Denny Hamlin has the solution to tackle the restart zone chaos

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Restart zones have become a talking point ever since Hamlin won the race at Richmond in a controversial manner. This was a huge blow to his teammate Truex Jr, who lost his lead to Hamlin while coming out of the pits. NASCAR called it a “bang-bang” quick decision and a right call. However, despite acknowledging that the No. 11 car jumped on the restart, Martin Truex Jr stood firm on his case, stating, “Whatever they set the rule at, just call it. I mean, we need a visual.”

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin stated that whatever the change is, the leader should have the edge going into restarts. “The leader should have an advantage. Because right now, you just see everyone’s timing their run to the leader. So the bigger the area, the better. But agree, call it whatever it is.”

What are your thoughts about the restart zone? And is tire wear the silver bullet to solve the issues surrounding the NextGen car?