Denny Hamlin, a Nascar star, thinks that by making softer tires, Goodyear can increase the excitement of racing and provide fans with a more thrilling display. The tires that are currently in use last longer, therefore cars lose their grip considerably later. To protect the tires and maintain their competitiveness in the race, drivers will need to drive carefully when using softer tires. Following his thrilling victory at Martinsville last weekend, which ended his winless drought since April 2024 and helped him record his 55th NASCAR victory, Hamlin made this statement.
In an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on The Dale Jr. Download, Hamlin discussed the need for softer tires but also pointed out the obstacle in the way, saying that Goodyear has reached the limit of how soft it can make its tires and that creating softer tires would require significant process changes that would take a significant amount of time and money. “I don’t know how much softer they can go. It’s about how much can they do,” Hamlin said, adding, “I think they’ve got a process issue now, where they’re going to have to do some retooling, or something with their — I think they’re at the limit of how soft they can build a tire right now, with the equipment that they have.”
To get a softer tire, they will need to spend more money on the necessary equipment. However, it must be gentler. As of right now, I’ve observed that caution emerges when the lap times actually start to decrease and you notice a difference in the cars’ speeds. A stage ends at that point. We’ve need to shorten that timeframe up a little bit. As of right now, it appears that cars really starting to take a hit about Lap 70 or 80. It must return to roughly 30 to 40. In practice, it was just that. As soon as the vehicles start moving around, they begin to clog the racetrack’s pores with tire rubber, it just goes away.
That’s such a challenging thing for Goodyear to have to do, to have to develop a tire that they know when they go to a tire test is going to wear down in 20 laps, but just have trust it’s going to run 80 when we go into real conditions.” However, it’s unclear if NASCAR will see a softer tire very soon because Goodyear is working at its peak.
