“Looking for consistency”: NASCAR Influencer shares her “hot take” on option tire subject

NASCAR heads to Martinsville Speedway this weekend, the first true short track on the 2025 Cup Series schedule. After experimenting with dual tire compounds at Phoenix, Goodyear will bring a single compound to the 'Paperclip Oval,' which is the same compound used in last season’s playoff race.

Goodyear and NASCAR reintroduced primary and option tires for the Phoenix race weekend, offering teams more strategic choices. The red-walled option compound provided a better grip at the expense of higher tire wear, while the primary compound had lesser wear in the long run.

Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass confirmed that Goodyear will use the same tire compound from last fall’s Martinsville race, with no option tire choice for the weekend. Currently, NASCAR has no plans to reintroduce the option tire alongside the primary for any race this season.

"Tires for Martinsville weekend are the same as November. No two different versions of tires this weekend and not expected to have teams choose among two versions (primary and an option) during a race again this year," Pockrass wrote on X.

NASCAR influencer Taylor Kitchen weighed in on the tire debate, suggesting that option tires should be introduced at all short-track races to maintain consistency. She wrote on X:

"I’m just looking for consistency. Hot take (maybe) but if we run the option tire at one short track, we should run them at all of them."

While the option tire adds a layer of excitement with increased strategy options, the results can be influenced by late race cautions and which team saves the option tires for the end. Teams and drivers are also not satisfied with the tire wear, suggesting that Goodyear should develop an even softer compound.

Last year’s fall Martinsville race saw significantly better tire wear than the spring event, with Ryan Blaney chasing down Hendrick Motorsports drivers to win the playoff race. This weekend, teams will have one tire set for qualifying and nine sets for the race, including the scrubbed set from qualifying.

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Goodyear Official reveals ultimate NASCAR goal for options tires

After the success of option tires at Phoenix Raceway, Goodyear official Mark Keto disclosed that their ultimate goal is not to run an additional option tire. Instead, they aim to develop a single compound with the high tire wear and falloff that teams and drivers want.

Keto added that the option tire at Phoenix served as a test bed for introducing a softer single compound in the future. In a recent interview with Road & Track, he said:

"Our goal is to not run an option tire, just to use it as a test tool. Our ultimate goal is to get to one tire that achieves the high wear and falloff that the teams are looking for. We're continuing down the path of testing to get to one tire, so we don't have an option."

Keto said that Goodyear is happy with the performance of the option tire at Phoenix. He mentioned that the red-walled tires were half a second to eight-tenths of a second a lap faster than the primary compound and had 2.2 or 2.3 seconds of fall-off over a forty/fifty lap stint.

Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, and Josh Berry participated in a tire test following the race weekend at Phoenix, as Goodyear and NASCAR explored the possibility of using the option tire as the sole compound for the championship race.