The NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night could be more about tires than side-by-side action and position battles for Playoff points.
Coming into the 7:30 p.m. scheduled green flag time, Crew Chiefs and tire specialists are putting some extra preparation into tire strategy. After the single practice session on Friday, a NCS champion voiced his concerns.
Brad Keselowski, driver and co-owner of the No. Ford for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing and 2012 NCS Champion, wasn’t sold on the amount of tires NASCAR and Goodyear allotted for the teams.
“We’re in trouble,” he said to the media. “The tire is supposed to be the option tire. It doesn’t look like the option tire. It doesn’t drive like the option tire.
“It’s going to be harder to run more than 50 laps on it,” Keselowski said. “If you look at the amount of tires we have. We have enough tires to go, I think, it’s like 45 laps a set. Rough math, not enough.
“So the math ain’t mathing, but I might be wrong. Maybe something will change, and we’ll get it at nighttime and the tires will extend their life cycle more than what we’ve seen in practice. But right now, it does not look good.”
Pre-determined Sets for Saturday
For the race, NASCAR and Goodyear have already allotted a total of nine sets of tires. That’s broken down into eight sets of new tires in addition to the one on each car when the race starts.
The option tire Keselowski spoke of was used at Richmond last year and consisted of red and yellow tires for teams to choose between during the race. Yellow tires were designated as prime and the ones with a red stripe around the outer tire wall were deemed option tires.
When implemented back-and-forth, some drivers were able to gain a large number of positions. on the reds. One wheelman who was very happy with the option tires system after the 2024 race was Daniel Suarez who went to front and led by three seconds at one point.
No More Sets on Saturday…for now
NASCAR and Goodyear shared no additional sets would be issued beforehand. But, if they were to add more sets during the race it wouldn’t be the first time.
Last year at Bristol Motor Speedway, multiple cautions for tires problems forced officials to issue another set mid-race because tires were giving out so fast.
The tires for Richmond were constructed with the same right-side compound used on last year’s option tires. The left side for this year has been dubbed “uber soft” as described by Rick Heinrich, product manager for Goodyear.
In talking with NBC Sports, he didn’t share Keselowski’s concerns after practice about their tires.
“They’ve really performed spot-on because we’re seeing that kind of fall-off,” he said. “We’re not seeing people showing that they can’t go as far as they’re going to have to go (Saturday) night.
“You’re going to have to put at lease 37 laps on a set of tires to able to make the math work. We’re seeing people go well beyond that.”
Quick math shows 400 laps divided by nine sets of tires, equals about 44.4 laps per set. Either way, the tire race within the race will be something to watch.
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