Goodyear, NASCAR release extra set of tires during another high-wear Bristol race

NASCAR Cup Series teams were given an extra set of tires on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, as excessive tire wear struck the short track for the second time in less than two years.

The set was released early in the final stage. It gave the teams a total of 11 sets (10 new and one carried over from qualifying) for the 500-lap race.

“The team is working really hard getting this set mounted, balanced and ready,” Justin Fantozzi, global race tire operations manager for Goodyear, told NBC Sports. “We’re going to go back to the same number of sets we had in the spring race when we saw this same kind of condition. We’re ready to go. 

“The industry has asked for this. We’ve got the best drivers, the best crew chiefs. We’re going to ask them to manage it. We’re delivering on exactly what we were asked to do.”

High afternoon temperatures at Bristol hit around 85 degrees, but it had dropped to around 71 degrees when the race started, with tracks temps hovering around just 89 degrees.

“The temperatures have gotten really cool right now – I’m in a sweater,” Fantozzi said. “As that temperature has dropped, it’s returned to about what we saw in [the] spring, 18 months ago. The tire is behaving exactly like it should.”

Less than 40 laps into the event drivers began experiencing excessive wear and cording, resulting in numerous green-flag pit stops. The track also began to quickly build marbles by the outside wall, reminiscent of the spring 2024 race when marbles built up instead of rubber being laid down in the racing groove.

Goodyear brought a brand new, softer right-side tire to Bristol, and the right side is where the most wear was being seen. According to Goodyear in its pre-weekend notes, it will be the only appearance for this right-side tire this season. The left-side tire is the same tire Cup Series teams have run in the last four races at Bristol.

The events are nearly the same as those teams faced in 2024 when tire wear surprised everyone on race day. Like that race, there was no strong indication from practice and qualifying that the tire wear would be so excessive.

“It definitely caught me off guard,” said Josh Berry, who retired in the first stage when his car caught on fire from suspected built-up tire rubber. “I was fully convinced it was going to be hammer down, but I could tell, probably 15 or 20 laps into the race, we were running like 16-teens (lap times), and you could see some people start coming back to you, and you could tell. 

“The pace during practice was 15.70s, 15.80s, and it was hammer down the whole time, and when we’re in the 16s that quick, you could tell that’s going on. You could see the marbles start developing and, man, it’s crazy.  It just has to do with the weather, I guess. It’s excessive, but I think it’s going to be a [heck] of a race to watch, for sure.”