Kyle Larson closed out the first round of the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs with one of the most dominant victories in the history of Hendrick Motorsports, as he led 462 laps on Saturday night and was never seriously challenged for the win.
Short track races in the Next Gen car have been extremely hit-or-miss, but aside from Larson fans, many viewers were less than impressed with the Bristol night race – especially when compared to the wild spring race we saw at the same track.
Back in March, Goodyear tires wore out completely after around 50 laps, leading to plenty of green-flag pit stops and several tire-related cautions. To NASCAR’s surprise, tires weren’t a factor at all in the night race, with Elton Sawyer telling SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he was “baffled” by the outcome.
With tire wear out of the picture, track position was the most important factor in the race, and several drivers complained afterward that passing was near-impossible.
The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck conducted a post-race poll for several years, asking fans to vote on whether a race was good or not. Only 27.2 percent of fans who voted said that the 2024 Bristol night race was good, which ranks last in the 19 total Bristol races that Gluck has conducted a poll for, and second-to-last among all short track races in the same period.
Larson responded to the results on Twitter and wrote that if there had been a green-white-checkered finish, far more fans would have called it a good race.
Lead 450 laps but have 2 overtime restarts and lose and I guarantee the percentage is flip flopped. That’s our fan base. https://t.co/mQ1OvdpDjc
— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) September 23, 2024
On Tuesday, Larson shared a deeper reflection of the Bristol night race and wrote that fans shouldn’t be blaming Goodyear for the results of the race. According to Larson, what we saw on Saturday wasn’t all that different from the Bristol races of the past, and the real issue is the Next Gen car.
All this tire wear talk about Bristol got me wondering… have we ever had a lot tire wear at Bristol besides the spring of 24? Eh, not much of any. Have we seen great races there? Absolutely. Have we seen duds where Kyle Busch leads 300+laps? Sure.
From what I remember in my…
— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) September 24, 2024
“From what I remember in my career before the Next Gen car was we had cars with some disparity that could run closer to one another in traffic and a wheel/tire combo that got hotter which in essences gave us less grip on the long run. I’ve ran with 900hp all the way down to 650hp or less potentially, high downforce, low downforce and everything in between.
Bristol’s ALWAYS been tough to pass. Speed on pit road and most likely there’s a good chance you’re going a lap down on the next run. That’s the way it is and has been for a very long time.
We had more natural cautions from wrecks because cars could run closer and we never quite made it a full fuel run because eventually someone’s RF tire would explode from overheating.
I’m not saying I want tires to explode again but we’re trying to crutch this race car on short tracks with the tire and then blame Goodyear every week cause cars can’t pass.
I don’t have the answer to fix what we currently have and neither do you but please stop blaming Goodyear. It’s not a tire problem.
And also, have any of you ran around Bristol with or without PJ1? Or resin for that matter. Yeah that’s right… so 🤐
Temper your expectations. We’re driving spec race cars.”