Indy Car

Column by Roy J. Akers- The Bristol tire situation may spread to other short tracks

     Watching the race on Sunday, it was an incredible race according to Fox NASCAR analyst Clint Bowyer. He said that multiple times during the first stage and throughout the race. He was alluding to the strategy of saving your tires. 
   Still, it was surreal. Ten sets of tires plus scuffs, an average of less than 50 laps or twenty-five miles per set, it made for a crazy race. 

Afterward, Kyle Larson was not happy.
     “It was weird and interesting. I thought some rubber was going to be laid down, but after the second run, we realised that wasn’t going to be the case,” he said. “I hope I never have to run a race like that again. It wasn’t fun to ride around like that. You never really knew how to manage your stuff.”

That is a bold statement from a driver who finished 5th.

The King, Richard Petty has seen literally 2000+ NASCAR Cup races and saw something he has not experienced before. “Not the way it went,” Richard Petty said. “We’ve seen tire wear over the years with all the different race tracks we run, but I’ve never seen anything like where so many people wore out the tires at the same time within four or five laps. Everybody just wore their tires out. Basically, no. I’ve never seen tire wear work out exactly the way it did at Bristol.”
     Petty may have had stronger words with NASCAR insiders, but even the King saw a new Bristol. 

Something that rarely happens is Goodyear actually making a statement about the tire situation during the race. Greg Stucker, the Director of racing at Goodyear, in part said, ““For, as the past year or so,” Stucker said, “the drivers have been pushing us to be more aggressive in our recommendations to be more aggressive in tire wear and let them manage the tires over the course of the run. And I think that’s what we saw yesterday.” 

So, if that is what the NASCAR community wanted, that is what they got. When drivers complain about the reduction of horsepower and want most of it back and it falls on deaf ears with the circuits management, it makes you wonder. For instance, at both Daytona and now Bristol, speed was reduced by drivers to both save fuel and in the case of Bristol, to save tire wear. 

So what does the future hold at the short tracks like Bristol and Martinsville coming up in April? This comment below is very telling. ​That positive reaction stems from fan, driver and NASCAR sentiment alike. John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president of innovation and racing development, called Sunday’s race “one of the best short-track races I’ve ever seen.”

It looks like the tires at Martinsville will be very similar but a little more forgiving as all parties will look for the happy balance. 
​
     While Kyle Larson did not like what Bristol dealt him, the winner of the Food City 500 Denny Hamlin had a much different experience. 
“You’re just trying to hold your line, not get passed but run fast enough to stay in front but not wear out your tires and whoever wanted to make passes would just go to the high line, make a pass and then try to get back down low again. It was a chess game; it really was for 500 laps.”
​Let’s see what happens moving forward

By Curt Cavin | Published: Mar 21, 2024

Townsend Bell has known the NTT INDYCAR SERIES as a driver and most recently as a television broadcaster, and he was one of the first Californians to learn about the development of The Thermal Club, a private motorsports country club near Palm Springs.

But even as a veteran observer of the sport, Bell comes into this weekend’s The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge special event with a high level of intrigue and open eyes.

SEE: Track Map

“At the end of the day, having no points (awarded) to win means having no points to lose,” Bell said of the exhibition. “I’m not sure in the current era (of the sport) we’ve ever seen what happens in that format, and that’s the curiosity for all of us. None of us as we sit here today can tell you with any certainty how that will play out from a racing standpoint. I also think that’s the reason why so many are curious to watch, along with me, and see what the results are.”

The last time the INDYCAR SERIES did an event like this was the Marlboro Challenge, a big-money event held from 1987 through 1992, the last time at Nazareth Speedway. A non-points race also was held in 2008 in Surfers Paradise, Australia.

This event has a purse of $1.756 million. The winner of Sunday’s 20-lap sprint race (12:30 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network) will earn $500,000. The runner-up will earn $350,000, third place $250,000 and fourth place $100,000. Fifth place will receive $50,000 with all other participants getting $23,000.

Money inspires, Bell said.

“You dangle cold hard cash in front of just about anybody in a competitive environment, whether that’s Mike Tyson boxing again at age 58 or 27 INDYCAR drivers with no points to lose, I think we’re going to see some interesting dynamics play out,” he said. “INDYCAR never disappoints.”

INDYCAR President Jay Frye said all competitors will be armed with every tool necessary to stage an exciting show. They will receive new Firestone Firehawk tires for qualifying, the heat races and the main event, and 40 seconds of push-to-pass in each. And, when the 12-driver feature is held, there will be halftime break to allow crew members to add fuel, adjust wing angles and tire pressures. Also, each car will have an additional 40 seconds of push-to-pass for the final 10-lap shootout while trying to corral tires that will have had 10 hard laps on them.

“There will be no fuel savings,” Frye said. “It’s no-holds-barred, go get ’em, (with) push-to-pass, that type of thing. So, it should create a great racing environment.”

Frye expects that last 10 laps to be “pretty interesting” given that the cars will have plenty of fuel with 10-lap-old tires and the extra 40 seconds of push-to-pass.

Bell said The Thermal Club’s 17-turn, 3.067-mile circuit has “some really good in-line (and) high-speed brake zones” that will invite drivers to take chances. As Rick Mears recently said of the approach drivers take in races, “They find a lot of places to pass that they’re not willing to take in practice.”

These drivers will have nine hours of track time heading into The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES stages a four-session Open Test on Friday and Saturday at the track in Southern California. Qualifying will be held at 8 p.m. ET Saturday (Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network), with the 27-car field split into two groups to determine the starting grid for two heat races Sunday. The top six finishers in each heat advance to the final. This will be the first time since 2013 at Iowa Speedway that the NTT INDYCAR SERIES has held heat races during an event.

This will be the second NTT INDYCAR SERIES event staged at The Thermal Club. Last year, a two-day Open Test was held, but seven of the current drivers were not in the series. That adds to this weekend’s intrigue, Bell said.

“The teams have all tested there, but not every driver has tested there,” he said. “So, I think that’s going to be fun to watch some of the (newcomers) get accustomed to the facility.”

Don Cusick, a co-entrant at the “500” and a member of The Thermal Club that was established in 2012, said the club members are learning the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, too, and many of them will be embedded with the teams this weekend. Cusick said he picked up several sponsors for this year’s “500” during last year’s event at The Thermal Club as people became more enthused with the spor

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