Bristol Motor Speedway winner Denny Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart spent their post-race news conference adamantly expressing that there was nothing wrong with Sunday’s race.
“It was challenging,” said Hamlin, who admitted his thoughts were biased. “A different kind of challenge, for sure. Certainly (it was) not something we’ve had to do for a very long time in managing tires. Lesson learned early on. I kind of ran a certain pace, a certain line, wore my tires out.
“From that point on, I made some adjustments internally. He (Gabehart) made some adjustments to the car that allowed me to just manage it from that point on. Once it got into that tire management type of race, certainly my history in late models where you had to do that big-time certainly paid off.”
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Goodyear described the tire wear as “too drastic” and was searching for answers on what changed from the fall race. Hamlin agreed that being able to run 40 to 50 laps on a set of tires was too small of a window, but the lesson was what happens when there is tire wear with drivers either moving forward or falling backward as they manage their tires.
“This is the first time the driver played a huge role in a long, long time,” Hamlin said. “Long time. It’s a different philosophy from what we’re used to, which is everyone is just kind of on the gas all the time, running the bottom, the shortest way around. Technique was a huge deal (Sunday).”
Gabehart has long preached that drivers and crew chiefs need more control of their race. One of the first things Gabehart mentioned was that Goodyear didn’t deserve any criticism for the tire, which should be different from the strong one the company makes for a road vehicle.
“Honestly, while it’s hard on (tires) yes, yes, it’s supposed to be hard,” Gabehart said. “You’re supposed to see these guys struggle. You’re supposed to see the 25th-place car look like a mess, and the team’s trying to figure out how to rebound and rally, help him understand this run management didn’t work, or the leader is running too hard this run. Tell your driver, ‘You weren’t in the lead this time, this happened,’ let him adjust inside (the car).
“It’s supposed to be hard. This is not supposed to look easy. I think this is what you see when you make it hard.”
It was an unexpected development. There appeared to be no significant issues during the first half of practice, but the track started to change when the second group of drivers got their chance to make runs. By qualifying, drivers were slipping and sliding around the concrete half-mile and beginning to wonder what had changed.
On Sunday morning, NASCAR reapplied the resin spray in the lower lanes of the corners. It didn’t take long in the race to see that tires would be the variable, and it became an event about who managed their sets the best. NASCAR then approved Goodyear to release an extra set of tires in the second stage.
“There’s not a single driver, single crew chief, engineer that planned on this,” Gabehart said.
Hamlin hopes the industry – and fans – don’t overreact. He and Gabehart felt Sunday was a learning experience.
“I’ve been saying for a while from my little microphone when anyone asks is that we got to stop talking badly about Goodyear in these situations,” Gabehart said. “This is not bad. Goodyear can make a million-mile tire that I have on my car when I get to the airport and drive home. It’s fantastic. I never have any trouble with it. This is supposed to be sport. It’s supposed to be hard.
“It’s supposed to force these guys to make decisions in the car. Do I go now? Do I not? The crew chiefs to make decisions on how they treat the tire, what their setup is, how long do you want to run this stint. You can’t just run the fuel tank out and the tire not blow. It might blow on you.
“That last green flag stop when we called him in, I can’t tell you how stressful it was. If NASCAR throws a caution when I’m on pit road, I’m in a lot of trouble. He knows it. But he’s telling me, ‘Hey, this tire is about to blow out.’
“Finally, you look up, and you’re thinking strategy the whole time. I’ve ran this many green flag laps, there will be this many till the end. Who is pitting, who is not? We looked like a jalopy out there compared to cars with tires. You’re trying to manage all that. That right rear tire wasn’t going to make it two more laps and we would have had a flat tire like so many others. What I want everyone to understand is that is not bad.”