Where has all the tire wear gone in the NASCAR Cup Series?
With the exception of a happy accident this March at Bristol Motor Speedway, tire wear on short tracks has essentially been nonexistent in NASCAR thus far in 2024. As a result, the amount of side-by-side competition has greatly suffered.
As the Next Gen car has narrowed the gap between teams, Goodyear’s inability to produce said wear has been exposed. Last weekend at Martinsville Speedway, for example, the top 36 cars in qualifying were all within a few tenths of a second. Well, 50-plus laps into a run, they were still within a few tenths of each other.
That sounds great on paper, but the outcome of competition that close? It creates boring racing. Since everyone runs the same speed an entire run, it makes passing almost impossible.
Obviously, Goodyear isn’t the only one to blame in how bad the Next Gen racing has gotten at short tracks and even road courses. But creating tires that wear out over a long green-flag run would be the easiest way to fix the problem.
In the 70-plus years of NASCAR racing prior to the Next Gen car, managing tires was what made or broke your afternoon. You could see someone rocket to the front, abusing their setup the whole time, only for a wily veteran who saved their tires to blow by them later in the run. A huge component of the racing was seeing who could go the fastest while also not using their tires up.
Those days are gone now, as every driver can go as hard as they want to with no fear of using up the tires at most tracks. Denny Hamlin said on his podcast Actions Detrimental this week that because of this development, NASCAR has not only created a flock of cars that are identical but also a generation of drivers who are identical.
It’s almost like the tires have become too good. Since there’s no risk of your equipment coming apart, pretty much everyone can manage the chassis setup they have. And when everyone is running the same speed, how in the world are you going to be able to pass?
The excitement on Sundays has turned lifeless as a result at several tracks iconic to NASCAR history: Martinsville, Richmond Raceway, even Watkins Glen International. And, like clockwork, after seemingly every one of these races we are treated to a multitude of podcasts, articles, etc., complaining about the lack of tire wear. Everyone from drivers to crew chiefs is practically begging Goodyear to get more aggressive.
Of course, there was one important exception to the rule from those in the industry: Bristol. For every person complaining about tire management, there were five standing up and cheering its return.
“Hats off to Goodyear,” said Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gabehart after that race. “I mean, I don’t want them to get any heat for this. I think Goodyear makes million-mile tires on the road. I don’t think they should make million-mile tires on the racetrack.
“I want them to have to make these drivers make decisions, crew chiefs make decisions. If they blow out, that’s on the crew chief, on the team. I think that should be part of our sport to a certain degree. Force the world’s best to make decisions.”
Too often, that strategy is no longer an option. Gone are the days of drivers thanking the three Gs in victory lane: God, Goodyear and Gatorade. Instead, it’s a chorus of complaints about the tires and the inability to pass in post-race interviews.
Goodyear has yet to make changes to address the problem. The tires have never been as durable as they are now as — according to Hamlin — Goodyear is still using similar tires to the end of the Gen-6 era, when the weight and durability of the car was completely different.
“This Gen-7 Next Gen car does not have nearly the load that the other car had,” Hamlin said. “So that hard, rock, rubber compound that you took from Gen-6 to Gen-7, it doesn’t work because these cars are not pushing [down on the tires enough].
NASCAR has also taken downforce out of cars on the short track/road course package this year. Downforce also pushes down on their chassis, causing more tire wear.
So basically, Goodyear is still making tires for the Gen-6 when it needs to get up to speed with the Gen-7. But we’re now in year three of this current era and that problem has still not been addressed.
Joey Logano was the perfect example last weekend when he ran the first 180 laps of the Martinsville race on the same left-side tires. If the tires actually wore properly, then he would’ve plummeted down the running order. Instead, he was extremely hard to pass and managed to get stage points.
We know that Goodyear is capable of making softer tires. The wet-weather tires used at North Wilkesboro Speedway last year and Richmond this year showed plenty of wear and created excellent racing. I get those tires probably would wear out too fast if they became the dry tires, too, but there has to be a middle ground between that and the dry tires Goodyear is currently bringing.
There’s a belief Goodyear doesn’t want to bring softer tires because it is scared that fans will see teams have tire problems and not want to put Goodyears on their street cars. I don’t think fans would really do that, but even if they did, the tires Goodyear has been bringing aren’t even close to having that be a problem.
In talking to fans over the course of the last few months, I’ve heard the opposite: seeing Goodyear not be able to make competitive racing tires makes them less likely to buy them for their personal car despite the durability.
Maybe I’m not the only reporter seeing that. Could fan reaction, if done right, be drastic enough to catch Goodyear’s attention? This sport is sponsorship driven, after all. What would happen if the fans were to publicly complain about the racing and how the inability for Goodyear to give competitive racing tires makes them less likely to buy their product.
Could people even start a boycott on buying Goodyears for their street cars until the tire company responds to complaints? It would be an act of desperation after years of inaction and indecision on the issue. But if NASCAR and Goodyear aren’t going to work together to find a solution, how are the fans going to get any movement?
Goodyear is a business first. It needs consumers buying its tires. If a large contingent of people were to get together and complain, the idea softer tires are needed might finally break through to Goodyear’s so-far-stubborn ways. NASCAR has its Fan Council, but it’s a prime opportunity for the fans to turn around and counsel them.
So it might be up to you, race fans. After two-plus years with the same tire trends, it certainly doesn’t seem like anyone else involved in this problem is trying to solve it.
Follow Michael Massie on Twitter at @m_massie22
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.