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Veteran NASCAR journalist Matt Weaver recently responded to a fan’s question about whether NASCAR was thinking of revamping its short-track package in 2025. Weaver said that although that is most likely on their agenda for the winter, right now, their goal is something else.
According to Weaver, NASCAR is currently working with Goodyear to fix the tire issues that the drivers have been facing lately. Reflecting on the same, he wrote:
“I'm sure it's on their winter agenda but right now they're all-in on solving the problem through Goodyear more than any package changes.”
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The most recent instance of tire mishap was in the 2024 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway where some tires didn’t even last 50 laps. NASCAR had used the same compound back in a September race, which showed no such problems. Therefore, nobody knew what went wrong.
“I’m not advocating that we have tire wear as severe as we saw yesterday every race,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s Director of Racing (via NASCAR). “But I think it’s a place where we could draw a line in the sand and I think we can learn from that.”
Goodyear introduced a different and softer tire compound for the Round of 16 playoff race at Watkins Glen International, which again, caught several drivers by surprise. The new tires would fall off more rapidly than they normally do, paving the way for more passing throughout the race.
As revealed earlier by Weaver, NASCAR will first fix its tires and then perhaps revisit its short-track scenario. It has been reported that OEMs are building new bodies for EVs and submitting them to NASCAR. Reportedly, Chevrolet is also working on a new body to replace the Camaro in the NASCAR Cup Series.
There is no denying that EVs run exceptionally well on short tracks like Martinsville and Bristol, given that they are heavier and tend to get slower around the corners.
COTA switches to 2.3-mile National course for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season
The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, which will make its fifth running next year, will not roll out on the 3.41-mile, 20-turn racetrack of COTA. Instead, the race will take place at the 2.3-mile National course, which has the exact same number of corners.
Even the NASCAR Xfinity Series race that weekend, i.e., the Focused Health 250 will play out on the shorter layout. As per NASCAR,
“The reconfiguration will eliminate approximately a mile of the backside of the permanent road course’s traditional layout and is expected to shave roughly a minute off lap times based on early NASCAR simulations.”
Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Camaro for Trackhouse Racing and winner of the 2022 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, tried the new layout on iRacing, and shared his thoughts.
“It flows together nice, and (Turn) 12 (of the Full Course) will really change a lot since we don’t have that long backstretch," said the Chevy star. "Once I get to (Turn) 13, though, it’s all going to be the same. I’ll be back to my normal speed I was at last year. Gosh, this place is awesome.”
To jumble things up even further, NASCAR will host the event in just its third week of running the 2025 Cup Series season as opposed to its usual placing in late March. The 68-lap race, scheduled for March 2 (3:30 pm ET onwards), will air live on FOX with radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
