NASCAR official details "record-setting day" after tire wear chaos ensues during "exciting" Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

The NASCAR Cup Series race presented an unexpected challenge to all teams last Sunday, as the concrete half-mile oval at Bristol caused severe tire degradation. Excessive tire wear put the Food City 500 in jeopardy, however, drivers managed to complete the full race distance.

The Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway descended into chaos, as it evolved into a tire conservation race, putting on a classic short-track show. With 54 lead changes, the 500-lap race broke the record for the most lead changes on a short track that previously stood at 40.

John Probst, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Innovation and Racing Development, termed the Food City 500 one of the best short-track races. He added that anxiety about excessive tire wear turned into excitement midway through the race. He said (as quoted by racingnews.co):

"Certainly a record-setting day for us. I know the race teams are probably pretty wore out right now. I know our track crew and folks up in the booth are probably wore out just from a pretty exciting day all around, on the track."

"Certainly, had some anxiety around some tire wear. But, all-in-all I think it was probably one of the best short track races I’ve ever seen."

NASCAR had initially allocated 10 tire sets for each team, one less than the total allocation from the previous year's race. This created a sense of panic about whether the teams would run out of tires, with Goodyear distributing an extra set midway through a race.

Veteran Cup Series drivers displayed their tire conservation prowess, as Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr and Brad Keselowski were the top three finishers. Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson, were the only other drivers to finish the race on the lead lap.

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NASCAR SVP elaborates on the possible reason behind tire wear

John Probst explained that several reasons influenced the high tire degradation in the Food City 500, with track temperature and resin on the inner groove playing an important role.

Probst said in the post-race interview (as quoted by on3.com):

"It could have just been a combination of resin, temperature and all of it today. So, we’ll have to go back it’s too soon to put a definitive reason to any of it, but uh, great race."

NASCAR applied resin to the inner groove last weekend, instead of PJ1, which was applied to the track during last year's race weekend. Goodyear executives believed resin caused the high tire degradation, but were puzzled as to why the upper grooves didn't rubber in throughout the race.