Despite his victory at Martinsville on Sunday, the outspoken driver and team co-owner Denny Hamlin continued to express his thoughts about what he believed NASCAR might have done better. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hamlin talked about Goodyear’s influence on racing, and the two seasoned drivers had similar thoughts on the tire company. How much softer they can get is beyond me. “It’s about how much they can do,” stated Hamlin during Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, “Dale Jr. Download.” “I think they’re at the limit of how soft they can make a tire right now, with the equipment that they have, and they’re going to have to do some retooling because they have a process issue now.”
To get a softer tire, they will need to spend more money on the necessary equipment. However, it must be gentler. According to Hamlin, there is a greater speed difference between drivers on the track when tires are worn, which may result in more warnings being issued on the racetrack. “The minute those cars get it going around there, and they start filling up the pores of that race track with tire rubber, it just goes away,” Hamlin stated. “Goodyear has a very difficult task: they have to design a tire that they know will wear out after 20 laps in a tire test, but they have to have faith that it will work 80 when we go into real conditions.”
In the NASCAR Cup Series, Hamlin has now won 55 races and is vying for his first career title. Hamlin’s victory on Sunday ensures him a postseason berth in the fall, so the first step toward realizing that dream has been completed. With a race victory secured for the year, Hamlin can concentrate on running regularly for the remainder of the Cup Series season. We’ll see how he handles the remainder of the season and how he, Earnhardt Jr., and other garage drivers hold Goodyear responsible for the tires’ longevity in competition.
