“We’d like to be out of tire business”: NASCAR ready to allow teams more liberty amid Chase Elliott’s tirade at New Hampshire 

After racing resumed with 82 laps left at the USA Today 301, Chase Elliott faced challenges with the wet-weather tires. He voiced his frustrations over NASCAR's restrictions on tire changes.

On his radio, Elliott expressed his displeasure, criticizing NASCAR for not allowing a tire change. The incident was later followed by, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR's SVP of Competition, addressing the media to clarify the tire change procedure.

The weekend's schedule had already been disrupted by rain, leading to the cancellation of Saturday's qualifying. Due to the NASCAR metric system, Chase Elliott had a strong start but later suffered a significant drop in position after an encounter with Joey Logano's car, which made contact with the left side of his vehicle and sent him spinning.

Meanwhile, Chase Elliott also grappled with tire issues during the race, leading to heated moments over the radio. Frustrated with the performance of his tires and unclear about when they could be changed, Elliott voiced his exasperation.

Mid-race, he expressed concern about the tires' condition, saying,

"These things are about to come apart when can we change.”

Upon learning from his crew chief that a change wasn’t permitted at that time, Chase Elliott couldn't hide his frustration, exclaiming,

"Ahh f*ck why do they have to do this shit and make it so damn complicated."

The confusion stemmed from a lack of clear communication about when tire changes were allowed under the race conditions. Addressing this issue in a post-race interview, Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s SVP of Competition, provided needed clarifications.

Sawyer, while talking to Bob Pockrass via X, said:

"I think the way we started this whole wet-weather-tire-process was basically we wanted to get our races started on time. And it really played into our hand yesterday to get the Xfinity race started on time and to get our races back to green as quick as possible if we’ve had a delay, which we had today, so you know, kudos to Goodyear. [...] We ran 301-plus laps today. Went into the overtime."

He continued:

"There’s still some things that we’re learning through this process and in all honesty, we’d like to be out of the tire business. We’d like to just turn that over to the teams. But as we continue to take small steps and learn, eventually, we’ll get there. We just want to do this in the safest way possible.”

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Joey Logano had an explanation for what happened when his car collided with Chase Elliott's

Joey Logano provided insight into the incident that occurred on lap 194, where his collision with Chase Elliott shook up the race. Restarting just behind Elliott at P12, Logano encountered a mechanical failure right at the first turn. He reported over his team radio that something had broken in the front end of his car, preventing him from making the left turn and causing him to crash into Chase Elliott.

Both cars sustained significant damage from the collision and fell back in the pack, but they managed to continue the race. Later, Logano reflected on the risks involved in racing at this level, especially with playoff implications on the line. Speaking via Daily Express US, Logano said:

"You're already in, and you're just racing to get playoff points anywhere you can. You can't take as big of risks on certain things because you can't afford last week to blow a tire. You can't afford to do it."

The aftermath of the incident saw Chase Elliott drop to P18 by the race’s end, nudging him down one position in the Cup standings while Kyle Larson moved up to take the lead.