After a two-hour and 15-minute delay due to rain, NASCAR surprised everyone last Sunday by deciding to finish the race at New Hampshire Speedway. Because the track was not completely dry, NASCAR asked the teams to switch to wet tires. This was certainly a big improvement considering that the Coca-Cola 600 was canceled due to similar circumstances.
However, Chase Elliott was not impressed with NASCAR’s wet tire restrictions and how they were used for the final 77 green laps of the race. He also said that teams should take responsibility in such situations to promote a competitive racing experience.
Wet weather tires, but no competitive pit stops!
Anyone who was there until the end of the race last Sunday knows how dramatic the end of the race was. Running on rain tires on a wet track made sense, but it was unclear how pit stops would work. Typically, it’s up to the team to decide whether to change or adjust tires. But that wasn’t the case at Loudon, and NASCAR opted for a non-competitive pit stop. Essentially, the team was unable to improve their track position entering the pit lane.
Additionally, NASCAR did not allow teams to rely on slicks, even if the track showed signs of drying. However, Chase Elliott did not blame this action for his 18th-place finish, emphasizing that NASCAR could have improved the race with wet tires. “One of the attractions of the NASCAR Cup Series, the top division in our sport, is that you can comment on your race however you want, and last weekend it felt like that was completely taken out of the equation, which was unfortunate.
It wasn’t because we did something bad or anything, but from my perspective, it would have been better,” Elliott said before the race in Nashville. The HMS star even argued that the fact that NASCAR ended the race with uncompetitive pit stops left no room for drivers to gain an advantage over their rivals. “Even if they made us run on wet tires, at least give us the option to pit out or stay out. Every time we’ve been in a race where we’ve been told when to go out and put on tires, we’ve become more similar than we were before,” Elliott added.
But NASCAR was in a bind and made the best of the situation. Luckily, future races with wet tires will allow teams to make definitive decisions about pit stop strategies.
NASCAR is in the learning process with the wet weather tire
To be clear, NASCAR has never raced in the rain or in wet conditions in the past. It was only in recent years that they tried a different approach. The first time this happened was at a race in Richmond, where the entire field started on rain tires because the track was not completely dry. Additionally, a new experimental tire with a softer compound was used in the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
However, in both cases the use of rain tires was already planned, whereas at Loudon this was a spontaneous decision of the board of directors. “We did over 301 laps today. We went into overtime. The fans who bought tickets got to see some great, exciting racing. And there are some things we’re still learning through this process and, to be honest, I’d like to get out of the tire business.
I’ll leave that to the teams. “But if we keep taking small steps and learning, we’ll get there eventually. We just want to make this as safe as possible,” NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, said after the race. As with Chase Elliott, NASCAR seems well aware of the complaints, too. And hopefully, they’ll give teams more say in tire and pit stop strategies in future races.
