During Friday’s practice sessions for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway, there was one tiny problem: the rubber from the tires wasn’t sticking to the track.
Instead, the rubber was marbling — no, we didn’t have anything to do with this — much like what happened at Indianapolis in 2008, when a caution had to be thrown every nine laps to prevent widespread tire failures.
NASCAR announced Friday afternoon that the right-side tires would be different for Saturday and Sunday’s races at the half-mile oval. Goodyear had brought a new tire combination this spring in hopes for more grip, but Denny Hamlin said Friday that his tires were showing cords after 30 laps. A fuel run at Bristol is 130 laps.
Since the new tires were being shipped in from Charlotte on Saturday, the Sprint Cup cars qualified on the tires that they already have and the final Nationwide practice Friday afternoon continued as scheduled despite the fact that the teams were using the right-side tires that are being replaced.
NASCAR to change tire compounds for races at Bristol
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