“We’re still learning a lot”: NASCAR holding on to control over decision making with wet weather tires 

After NASCAR successfully implemented the wet weather tires at New Hampshire, some in the garage wondered if the teams should be allowed to make that decision for themselves. One of those names was Rudy Fugle, the crew chief of William Byron.

Fugle said after the race that "half the people" would've put dry tires on instead of the wet weather ones. He claimed that there was "a lot more openness" to teams and drivers taking control for the majority of decisions.

But as for why that hasn't happened yet, NASCAR's Brad Moran recently revealed the reasons on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

"We would love to give the tires to the teams and let it be their option and that is where we're working to get to. But we really had very little data point. We're still learning a lot about these tires everytime we put them on and take them off. The teams are all aware of it. We did send out a note and I had quite a few meetings with the crew chiefs and everyone understood what our plan is and how we go if we start a race, once it gets going, if it rains, what moment we get into,"

"So the teams did have all that information available and we would like to get to that one day, but again we want to make sure that it sticks for the sport and gives us this opportunity to run in damp conditions," Moran said.

He claimed that NASCAR is being "very cautious" and careful, and that teams understand that.

It's worth mentioning that the wet weather tires allowed the race at Loudon to get completed, something NASCAR's Elton Sawyer also spoke about. He revealed that they would've called the race despite 82 laps remaining when it started raining. But the tires gave them an opportunity to race again.

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Denny Hamlin gives kudos to NASCAR for avoiding risky situation at New Hampshire

Speaking on the podcast Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin claimed that NASCAR choosing to wait instead of immediately putting the wet-weather tires on was the right call.

"Would it had been risky? Extremely, yes, because we knew that heavy rain was coming. When we pulled on pit road and we stopped in our pit stalls, there were big drops coming down. We’ve already said that we don’t have windshield wipers, OK that’s fine. But we can’t race during heavy rain and so, we’ve seen that isn’t good and visibility, we didn’t have any mud flaps on the cars, so we don’t have anything to help with spray, so I think generally speaking they made the right call to 'let’s just let this rain pass and then go after it after that,'" Hamlin said.

Having said that, Hamlin mentioned that the wet-weather tires aren't actually wet-weather tires. As per the #11 driver, "they're more damp condition tires." Hamlin claimed that racing with the wet weather tires would be "too dangerous" to run on that track.

But going forward, NASCAR wants to leave the tire choice decisions upto the teams. Elton Sawyer claimed that while there are some things they're still learning, they want to be "out of the tire business." He revealed that NASCAR intends to turn that part of racing to the teams but getting there would take time as they want to do it "in the safest way possible."