BRISTOL, Tenn. – With tires that couldn’t last more than 40 to 50 laps without blowing out in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway in March, this Saturday’s (Sept. 21) Bass Pro Shops Night Race was expected to be the exclamation point on what has already been a wild and unusual Round of 16, following two unorthodox races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International.
The Cup field is running the exact same tires at Bristol this weekend as they did in March, so the general consensus was that tires would at least play some factor in Saturday’s race – even if the wear proved to be far less extreme than it was in March.
But Friday’s (Sept. 20) practice and qualifying sessions provided far more questions than answers for the Cup field, as there was little to no tire wear despite some teams running more than 100 laps in the 45-minute practice session.
“[Felt like] old Bristol, last year,” said Ross Chastain. “Spring seems to be an asterisk. I haven’t seen anything or felt anything that felt like the spring so far. As we ran through that first run and we all got to lap 20-30, I’m like waiting on it to slip or waiting on them to say, ‘caution, someone blew a tire.’ But we ran over 50, almost 60 laps and it felt like old Bristol.
“I don’t know why it did it in the spring and I don’t know why it’s doing what it is now.”
Other drivers were also puzzled by the lack of tire wear, including Brad Keselowski.
“I don’t know what in the world’s going on,” Keselowski said. “We went from not thinking we could make 40 laps to thinking we can run 1,000 laps on tires. I don’t think anybody knows what’s going on there.”
RFK Racing tested at Bristol with Chris Buescher‘s No. 17 car in August and that test showed a ton of tire wear, which made Saturday’s practice session all the more perplexing.
“It’s so hard to predict,” Keselowski said. “We’re all over the place. We came and tested here in March, saw super high tire wear, didn’t believe it, went and ran the race and it wore the tires right out. Then we came back here in August with the [No.] 17 car, tires couldn’t go 20 laps again. Thought, ‘Oh, that’s what we’re going to have when we come back,’ and now we’re showing no tire wear. So we have no idea what to expect.
“… We don’t know what the variable is. So, until we can identify what it is, we’re all guessing the same guess you guys are guessing. You know as well as I do right now.”
For many others, the practice session marked a return to normalcy, which depending on who you ask, could be a good or bad thing.
“It felt exactly how it did in the fall when I was here last year,” said Carson Hocevar. “Which, I enjoyed more. I didn’t really like the spring, because [the tire wear] was so extreme. I like tire wear, but not when you just blow tires.”
“I saw what every other Bristol race has ever looked like since I started racing stock cars,” added Austin Cindric. “So obviously the spring race definitely spooked a lot of people, including us. Quite a bit different [today], but different being normal.”
Alex Bowman, who scored his first pole of the season and his first at a non-drafting track since 2016, also saw nothing that indicated a repeat of the spring race for Saturday.
“I think it’s back to where it was a year ago,” Bowman said. “I didn’t really see any unusual wear; [the tires] don’t fall off that much. So definitely curious as to what the variable is there. I think there’s a lot of smart people that will figure out what that variable is between the tests here and the spring race and everything with the same stuff causing different results.
“But yeah, I think we’re in for Bristol a year ago more than Bristol in the spring, unless all the rubber comes up off the track overnight for whatever reason. I think that would create the spring race again. But barring that happening, I think we’re kind of normal Bristol again.”
The eye test showed little tire wear on Saturday, and the drivers echoed the same thoughts. But as Keselowski said, we won’t know what we’re dealing until all 37 cars hit the track for 500 laps on Saturday.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
They get the tires from the Bedrock Concrete and Tire Company.