RICHMOND, Va. — Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway features a new layer of strategy for crew chiefs to cover.
For the first time in a points-paying race, teams will have two different tire compounds at their disposal. Each team will have six sets of “prime” tires Sunday night, which are the traditional, harder tires indicated by yellow lettering. But they’ll also get two sets of “option” tires, which are softer and indicated by red lettering.
The option tires are meant to give drivers short-run speed at the expense of wear.
Teams received one set of each tire for a 45-minute practice session Saturday afternoon. Denny Hamlin turned the 11th quickest time before winning the pole later in the day.
“There was considerably more wear with the option, and it does appear that it is going to fire off faster and maybe go slower,” said Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s crew chief. “It already seemed like it was going to go slower after 40 laps – which is not quite a get-home lap here at Richmond – definitely a lot of potential.
“I need to see it in the race more because in terms of how it is going to perform with the option, because the track changes so much from practice here in Richmond – especially in the first five or ten minutes.”
Teams were dealt a similar hand back in May for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. But certainly, those circumstances were much different. The race was just 200 laps. Cautions were manipulated down the stretch. It was cooler.
Plus, North Wilkesboro is fresh off a repave, while Richmond’s abrasive surface hasn’t been touched since 2004.
“I think the cooler weather played a factor at North Wilkesboro,” Gabehart said. “At practice, we saw one thing and certainly had a feeling going into the race that in those conditions we might see this and then we lived the race where it was a night race and cooled off and certainly felt differently about it afterward.
“I don’t think this (Richmond) is capable of that level of transformation from one condition to the next, but I do think until the lights turn on here at Richmond you won’t know what you have.”
Going into Sunday’s 400-lapper, the million-dollar question is when teams will switch to the option tires. Will they wait for the final two runs of the race? Or could untimely cautions toward the end of stages force teams to make an early switch for points?
Gabehart wouldn’t fully show his hand. But he has a general idea of when he’ll throw them on Hamlin’s No. 11 machine.
“I have a rough game plan. I have a rough idea of how most will tend to use them if they know when the cautions come out,” he said. “I do think you’ll see some cut-off teams that may need to get a little desperate at the end of some of these stages to try to go grab some of those points, and I think that would be a wise move for some of them if they got the opportunity.
“But I think to win the race, you will have to leave them for the end of the race.”