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NASCAR's Elton Sawyer was impressed with Goodyear's tire commitment as wet tires were used for the first time at an oval at Richmond.
A damp track at the Toyota Owners 400 forced the Cup Series championship to start on wet tires, setting a new challenge for the drivers. Although the grip levels were rather challenging at Bristol a couple of weeks ago, they worked surprisingly well on the damp Richmond.
Elton Sawyer mentioned that Goodyear's R&D was able to develop a tire that went easy on the track. He told SiriusXM:
"This is a vision that Mr. France has had for three or four years now and he tasked the R&D Center in Goodyear to come up with a tire that we could run on short ovals. So, credit goes to the guys at the R&D Center in Goodyear for being able to get that tire."
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The NASCAR race at Bristol earlier proved to be extremely poor with the tires, but the improvement at Richmond was apparent. Sawyer claimed that in similar conditions like this a couple of years ago, the race start would have been delayed by an hour or over but because of the current tires, the time was only fifteen minutes.
"The positive was we were able to get our race started maybe 15 minutes late where five years ago we'd have been an hour, hour and a half where we could have got the race started. So, all in all, huge success with the wet weather tires. We're looking forward to getting back, downloading the things that you know we learn from this, the things we need to get better."
Denny Hamlin wins his second race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship
The 2024 season started well enough for Denny Hamlin. He won the pre-season Busch Light Clash which was followed by his first race win at Bristol with championship points. He also managed to win the Toyota Owners 400, marking his second victory in the championship season.
Having led over 290 laps in the season so far, Hamlin stands in third place in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, only 18 points shy of the leader Martin Truex Jr. Although the latter was leading for most of the race, a late caution allowed drivers at the top to pit and Hamlin's crew managed to put him out first and into the lead. The race restarted for the final two laps and the #11 Toyota emerged victorious with Joey Logano in second place.
