If we sit back and do nothing,
then shame on us. We deserve whatever's coming to it.
This is not going to be a rose colored glasses
show today.
I'm sorry about that. But we will be as honest
as we can be.
I feel like I've given credit to NASCAR and others
that have deserved it a lot when when I have
my conversations with Steve Phelps and say,
listen, 880% of my podcasts are going to be very
good for you and then there's going to be 20%
that you're just going to have to be.
You guys are the big boys.
You are the the lead.
Sometimes the lead needs to be called on a few
things.
Hey there, racing fans. Today we're diving deep into
NASCAR's short track dilemma. From Martinsville to Richmond,
drivers and fans alike are frustrated with the lackluster racing
experience.
While Hendrick Motorsports celebrated its historic win on the Martinsville
track,
drivers like Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and more had a
lot to say about the short track concerns.
Even former drivers and spotters have pointed out what NASCAR
should have worked on sooner.
But what exactly is going wrong and what are the
ways suggested by the NASCAR community to fix it?
Let's find out. Before that,
do subscribe to the channel.
The excitement of NASCAR's short track races seems to be
fading away.
Despite efforts to improve with the Next Gen.
car, the racing experience at venues like Martinsville Speedway is
falling short of expectations.
Of the many things NASCAR has accomplished with the Next
Gen.
car, one thing it simply can't get right is the
short track package.
For a little more than a while now,
the governing body has introduced and tweaked more than a
few variations of a short track package,
but nothing seems to be working.
In last weekend's race at Martinsville,
Joey Logano ran the 1st 184 laps on the same
set of left side tires and was able to lead
despite the rest of the field having fresher left side
tires than him. Also, when Logano caught the back of
the field,
he ran several laps behind Austin Dillon,
unable to lap Dillon, who was running 33rd.
Moreover, veteran drivers like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are
openly expressing their frustrations.
Hamlin did pit towards the end of the race in
hopes of gaining a lot of places through the pack
or hoping that others would pit as well.
But new tires seem to do nothing against the old
ones.
It was almost like tire changes did not mean anything.
He vented out about everything from Martinsville on a recent
episode of his podcast.
So now you've created a next Gen.
of cars, You've created a next Gen.
of drivers all drive the same because it's clear the
optimum way to drive it.
So how are you going to create passing?
At the end of that race,
I was trying my damnedest to knock Austin Cendrick out
of the way.
He was holding me up bad.
I don't know how many laps down he was maybe
one,
maybe two in the middle of guys battling for a
race win.
I couldn't get to him to knock him out of
the way.
I'm trying to knock this guy up.
The racetrack can't do it,
can't reach him. So instead I have to just sit
behind him,
let the laps just go away.
It's a problem. That's why we don't have the cautions,
the wrecks, anything that we have used to have from
back in the day.
We can't even reach the bumper of the cars that
the racing needs to be fixed.
I'm not saying anything that no one is not going
to be saying this entire week and they've already said
it.
I'm sure the DBC guys will have issues with it.
Certainly the teardown and the media have voiced their opinion
already on it.
And I agree with them.
If we sit back and do nothing,
then shame on us. We deserve whatever's coming to us
in the long run.
If you're NASCAR, you're going to say,
well, we we gave you a little different tire and
we gave you a little different air pack.
But it seems like anytime we have this conversation,
the answer is always, well,
we'll give you a little bit of different tire,
but the result end up ultimately is the same.
It's relatively the same because you're not.
Until you make a horsepower or tire or shifting change,
you will have the same result.
You're right that we keep tinkering with aerodynamics.
I'm sorry, we're running 45 miles an hour in the
middle of Martinsville.
It's not aerodynamics. It's a horsepower to tire ratio.
Until we get that through our thick skulls,
it will will remain the same,
but it will have to come from the
the high UPS at NASCAR to say,
fine, we're done. We've we've seen what parody looks like.
We don't like it because that's why you have no
wrecks.
We can't even get near each other.
It's just a conveyor belt.
Ahead of qualifying in Martinsville,
Kyle Busch had also made his thoughts very clear on
the short track package.
I didn't think we can make it worse,
but by golly, we did.
For me anyways. Like, maybe it's just because we don't
have it quite figured out like others do,
but I cannot follow anybody in front of me whatsoever.
It doesn't matter if I'm in the bottom lane,
the middle lane, the top lane,
there's a car in front of me.
I am, I am terrible,
really bad. I will say the only positive to it
is that you can slide the back of the car
around a little bit more and,
and not crash, but the
the front ends are just ungodly not working.
It doesn't matter because they're not going to do it.
So it don't matter. I'm not going to paint myself
in a bad spot to get in trouble.
NASCAR spotter Freddie Kraft was stunned by almost nonexistent tire
wear at Martinsville.
The veteran has seen NASCAR in its early days and
claims that the tire situation at Martinsville would not have
happened in any era.
I mean, it would be unheard of.
Years ago. We had a hundred lap on our 100
laps on our tires,
100 and we pit with
102 to go and the green white checker,
it was a green white checker.
So we had 102 laps plus,
you know, whatever those yellow laps you are,
we, you, you had to come.
That was unheard of to stay out on old tires
like that with especially with I think there was 14
or 15 cars in the lead lap at that point.
And that kind of played into Denny's.
I was reading gay parts comments about why they pit
and it was basically like,
well, we're not going to.
We already have two wins.
We're not going to to win from 4th on the
same tire,
so if them guys all stay out,
you might as well come because 4th and 10th are
essentially the same to us.
You know, you're giving up in the,
in the grand scheme of things,
just trying to and Danny,
you know, their hope is probably that if,
if people see Danny coming.
So what's the root of the problem?
Many attribute it to the lack of tire wear and
passing opportunities.
With the current setup, cars struggle to generate power,
leading to unresponsive handling and minimal overtaking.
As the discontent grows, everyone agrees that something needs to
change and voices within the NASCAR community are calling for
action.
Denny Hamlin, who openly shared his frustrations on his podcast,
asked Dale Earnhardt Junior for help.
Get NASCAR's car, Get Dale Junior and get him to
go to Richmond,
Get him to go to Martinsville and test tires.
He gets to pick out the tire that we run.
It'd be great publicity. This is Dale Junior's tire.
Let's see how it does to go out there because
he's he's angry about the tire as much as I
am.
He brings it up just as much as I do.
We clearly are missing the mark Goodyear is missing
and we clearly know that having a tire that falls
off,
we've seen it. Bristol gave us the evidence that says
this is better.
Dale Junior is just as passionate about the failing short
track racing situation that NASCAR faces.
Through the help of social media,
he ensured Hamlin and everyone else that he was open
to helping the situation the best he could as a
driver.
Hamlin was one of the many drivers who believed that
the tire makers would have a good idea about what
tires to get to short track races.
When horsepower is low, tire wear has to be the
compensator,
but that was not the case at Martinsville or even
Richmond.
Where will Goodyear go from here in terms of the
short track tires?
Only time will tell. Moving on to what NASCAR officials
thought about the situation and had to say about it.
With little to no visible difference after four races utilizing
its new aero package for short tracks and road courses
in the Cup Series this season,
NASCAR admits it's got more work to do to improve
the quality of racing.
The issue has been especially apparent on the three tracks
one mile in length or less in which the package
has been used so far in
2024. Phoenix, Richmond and this past weekend at Martinsville.
NASCAR VP Elton Sawyer shared a few words about the
situation.
As far as the product on the racetrack,
I think we have. We can't lose sight of the
fact of what what happened at Bristol a couple weeks
ago.
I think we're not naive to this.
We want, we as NASCAR,
want our short track package to be better.
We want that racing to be at the level that
super speed waves and our intermediate race tracks are today.
We I promise issue, we are working as hard as
we can with Goodyear and we need to work harder.
What we learned at Bristol
and also what we learned the 1st 30 laps at
Richmond last week on how that race unfolded.
You know, the tires and the way they wear and
the way the drivers have to manage that an entire
fall off is really the what we're trying to achieve.
You know, will give us the short track racing that
we're all looking for and the the surface at Richmond,
the surface at Martinsville, the surface at other short tracks
surround.
It's not A1 tire fix all type,
you know, solution. So we have to continue to work
and and we're not we're not resting on anything that
we did yesterday.
Today we're going to be digging on this again and
and working on solutions and and trying to get to
a better place.
Despite the clamour for change,
NASCAR is hesitant to make drastic adjustments.
Yet with mounting pressure, a shift in approach may be
inevitable.
As we look to the future,
one thing is clear, the soul of NASCAR lies in
its short track races.
And there you have it folks,
the short track dilemma saga from Martinsville.
Don't forget to hit that.
Like, subscribe and share your thoughts in the comments below.
Until next time, keep the conversation going on.
Lucky dog on track.