MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With rain likely Sunday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR was able to use wet tires on an oval track in a cup race for the first time.
The tread tires are designed to allow NASCAR to get cars onto the track before the race surface is dry, reducing the time fans have to wait for an event to start or resume.
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But NASCAR does not intend to race on ovals in the rain because spray from cars reduces visibility of following cars. With walls on ovals, this makes the situation more dangerous than racing in the rain on a street course, which usually has more run-out space.
NASCAR got its first chance to use the wet tires on an oval track at Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series race in Martinsville.The experience provided officials with important lessons that should help them decide when to use the tires in future situations.
“I think overall it was a success,” said Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, of the use of the wet tires in Friday’s truck race. “There were many things that we learned. I thought the way we put on the rain pants worked out well. I think the big learning that we kind of have to work through is when we have a wet or damp pit lane and keep it as safe as possible, going back and forth between rain and (slick tires).
Kyle Busch, who competed in the truck race, said one important thing to learn on Friday night is when the vehicles are allowed to run on the wet tires.
“I think the biggest thing is the missed opportunities to just go early,” Busch said Saturday of what he would suggest to NASCAR about the procedure. “If the intention is to move forward with this idea sooner, then let’s do it. We were cleared I think 30 minutes before finally taking the green flag. Like we wasted 30 minutes on more track drying. I think part of that was pit lane but we could have gone earlier.
“And then we drove the longest stretch of the race on the rain tires in the dry. And then when it started raining again and caution was gone, you just called – how good, wet weather and back to rain, and then let’s run as long as we run and see what happens with the route happened.
Sawyer confirmed what Busch and others had suggested to get on the track earlier.
“(In) hindsight, and in conversations with some drivers, we could have been a little more aggressive,” Sawyer said, if we started the truck race earlier on the wet tires. “We’re going to take that and put it into a talking point and come to a better place as we need to leverage that going forward.
“A really positive aspect that we took from that is that we got the truck race on (Friday) night and that was one of the big goals to get the event.”
Busch, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric tested the rain tires in June 2022 at Martinsville Speedway. Water was sprayed onto the racing surface and the drivers then drove laps. The tires worked well but there was a problem.
“It’s not really about how the car handles the issue (on a wet track), it’s just visibility,” Reddick told NBC Sports. “It was just the three of us out there and every time I restarted behind Kyle and Austin…once we hit the gas I couldn’t see anything. It’s just castration more than anything.”
Cindric said that during this test “for the first 10 laps of the run visibility was pretty much impossible”.
Reigning truck champion Zane Smith, who will drive for Rick Ware Racing in tonight’s cup race, wasn’t a fan of using wet tires on Friday night.
“I definitely felt like we were just test dummies, but what’s been bothering me since the end of truck racing is that not long ago I was fishing so hard for sponsors to try and get into a truck racing race to prove it,” Smith said.
“There are a lot of people in the Truck and Xfinity series and I really feel for them. What if this was her race to prove something? I don’t really think of it as a race.”
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