NASCAR insiders demand explanation for tire 'problem' in multiple races

If you were to put the two Bristol races this season side-by-side, you'd be hard-pressed to find many, if any, similarities.

In the spring edition, we saw massive tire fall-off. But despite Goodyear bringing the same tire to the racetrack in Saturday's Round of 16 finale, it was clear within the first 100 laps that tire fall-off would not be a story this time around. Tire wear was non-existent, and Kyle Larson took advantage of it, leading 462-of-500 laps en route to picking up his fifth victory of the season.

to go to PrizePicks and use code ON3 to receive a guaranteed $50 once you play $5 in lineups!

Speaking on " The Teardown " podcast after the race, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic called for an explanation from Goodyear as to why the tires didn't show the same amount of wear as they did back in March. Fellow insider for The Athletic, Jordan Bianchi, isn't counting on getting one, saying he has "zero confidence" in Goodyear's ability to "build an effective tire on a consistent basis."

"I have zero confidence that there is going to be an explanation about what happened tonight," Bianchi said. "My faith in Goodyear is getting lower and lower on this and that they are able to build an effective tire on a consistent basis, because it doesn't happen."

Saturday's race was the Larson show and yes, he had the best car. That part is undisputable. But behind him, the action was largely uneventful. Drivers consistently lamented how difficult it was to pass and there were just eight lead changes throughout the race.

Kyle Larson dominates tame Bristol Night Race

Larson recorded a 7.1-second margin of victory and put together the third most dominant Bristol win of all-time . With only four leaders, the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Night Race joined 2023 Bristol Dirt and 2022 spring Martinsville as races with the fewest amount of cars pacing the field in the Next Gen car era.

In a system where the championship is decided by these 10 races and split into four rounds, Gluck believes it's unacceptable for tires to be as inconsistent as they are week to week.

"Well, that's a problem," Gluck said. "And so again, there needs to be some sort of accountability or explanation. Whether from Goodyear themselves, or NASCAR or whatever. But you can't have sort of like this inconsistency, because, as I was saying, the race played out straight up. But I don't want to see in future, whether it's championship races or cutoff races, teams showing up and on the day of the race going, "I have no idea what this tire is going to do. The tire a key element of the racing. It's not the same. We don't know why. We can't explain it.'

"There's all these theories, like, that should be a known quantity, right? Like that should be like, 'All right, we know the setup. We're not sure how our setup will change in the race or whatever, right?' Like something else. But to have the tire be the wild card factor is a little scary for a championship that is divided into many seasons and one championship race."