The sport’s governing body introduced rain tires in the recently concluded New Hampshire race, but Harvick believes officials need to further develop the tires.
NASCAR’s delay in adapting to rainy racing conditions is due to the fact that its next-generation cars do not meet the optimal standards for racing in completely wet conditions. Goodyear has made efforts to introduce rain tires, but they have been far from ideal in terms of practicality. Furthermore, many experts believe that Goodyear’s “wet tires” are too similar to “wet tires” due to tire manufacturers and NASCAR’s inability to effectively promote rainy weather racing on oval tracks. Harvick said on the “Happy Hour” podcast:
“The rain tires… they need to be developed a little bit more. They need to have an offset on the back of the tire. That was the first thing we told NASCAR and Goodyear to North Wilkesboro, but we don’t have an offset on the tires yet.” [16:48]
“So I don’t know why we didn’t develop the tires a little bit to have an offset for the oval. And we also need to make sure we bring enough. “To be competitive on wet tires, we would have to bring more trailers to the track,” he continues. Once upon a time, regular cars only ran on oval tracks. But things changed over time, and the sport gained more and more attention around the world. With the advent of next-generation cars, the sport moved to road courses and street circuits, and the demand to continue racing in the rain grew. What happened to NASCAR’s first wet race with wet tires? Christopher Bell won his third victory of the season in a rain-soaked Loudon USA Today 301 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
He became just the fourth driver to achieve three wins this season, joining Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and William Byron. The No. 20 Camry driver finished ahead of Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Josh Berry. Larson and Buescher finished fourth and fifth, respectively, completing the top five.
After 18 races in the 2024 regular season, Larson leads the standings along with Chase Elliott, both with 620 points. Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Tyler Reddick round out the top five with 580, 572 and 560 points, respectively. NASCAR competition moves to Nashville Superspeedway on June 30 for the Ally 400.
