NASCAR News: Work continues on short track package

A senior NASCAR official says that the sanctioning body needs “to work harder” to improve short track racing after last weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

Elton Sawyer, NASCAR senior vice president of competition, made the comments Tuesday on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio amid continued calls to fix what once was one of the best aspects of the sport.

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A senior NASCAR official says that the sanctioning body needs “to work harder” to improve short track racing after this past weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

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Having tire wear has become a key area for NASCAR to look at with the sanctioning body not willing to increase the horsepower, citing costs and potential interest from manufacturers. Without significant tire wear, drivers are not penalized for going as hard as they can.

Two-time Cup champion Joey Logano implored NASCAR on Tuesday to “do something now” with tires to improve short track races after last weekend’s event at Martinsville Speedway.

“Bristol was good because the tire came apart,” Logano told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “And that was good. Richmond and Martinsville, gosh, we got to swing the bat. We’ve got to do something big to fix it. I hate saying it, but we’re not an aero package away anymore. We’ve tried that. We’ve hit that button a few times.

“We’ve got to do something to make the tires fall off. I get it. Listen, here’s the deal, Goodyear has built a tire that is too good. If you’re looking to buy a tire on the street. That’s the tire you want. You want the tire that is going to last forever. … But that’s not what we want as racers.

“It’s a fine line. Think about it. If you are Goodyear and the storyline is these tires are coming apart or they’re wearing out quickly, well, then you would say ‘I don’t want to put that on my car.’ We have to somehow separate our street wants vs. our racecar wants.”

Denny Hamlin addressed the meeting during the Monday episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“They’re going to really focus on tires and tracks,” Hamlin said. “… Goodyear was there. Obviously, they hear us loud and clear on what we’re trying to achieve. The biggest difference with Next Gen versus Gen 6 is that the loads are significantly lower than what they were. Really on the left sides is the big place where we really need to get the tire wear working a bit more on Next Gen is the left side wear. So, they’re going to try to get really aggressive at some tracks. They got some tire tests coming up and they showed us the schedule for that.

“They [NASCAR] definitely said publicly last week, and they said it to us that horsepower is just not an option for various reasons. If we’re going to keep the horsepower, we should definitely in my opinion work on getting rid of the shifting. In order to do that, they’re going to need to make the upper RPM slightly higher or else we’re going to be running just way too low RPM in the middle of the corner. I certainly think that shifting is not helping at all on the short tracks, but beyond that, it looks like we’re going to focus on tires to fix the short tracks.”

That also means NASCAR is done tinkering with various aerodynamic solutions, from reducing downforce through the spoiler and rear diffuser, and going all in with Goodyear on finding a fix through the tire compound. Sportsnaut