NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — For the first time in 27 years, NASCAR Cup Series cars raced competitive laps around North Wilkesboro Speedway’s .625-mile racing surface Saturday on the eve of the All-Star Race.
At night. With “wet” tires.
Weird, right?
What was the takeaway after one 60-lap heat race was run completely with wet tires and the other was split between dry “slicks” and wets?
“We learned nothing,” said Daniel Suarez, the winner of heat race No. 1. “We learned absolutely nothing.”
Oh. In no way, shape or form will the condition of Sunday night’s 200-lap All-Star Race reflect what drivers experienced during the 60-lap heat races on Saturday evening. That made it difficult to ask questions on pit road as Smash Mouth’s “All Star” played over a PA system and the state-of-the-art Musco lighting system performed a psychedelic display.
Brad Keselowski, co-owner of RFK Racing, had his own takeaway, though it’s arguably biased.
“The 17 is going to be a hell of a car to try to beat, because he is super fast,” Keselowski said of Chris Buescher, who led every lap of the second heat. Buescher was also in the top five of both fastest single laps and best 10-lap consecutive average in practice Friday.
Back to the tires.
This marked the first time the Cup Series has used the wet tires on a drying oval track. After starting on slicks, about a third of the way through the second race the caution came out for rain. On went the wet tires. The extra grip resulted in far more competitive racing than before the caution.
“It’s a totally different mindset,” Bubba Wallace said after finishing fifth. “When you’re on slicks, you’re just finessing, right? When you put on the softer tires, the rain tires. You just drive the hell out of ‘em. I’m more wore out than after the 250-lap truck race (earlier Saturday).”
Keselowski, who placed fourth called the conditions Saturday night “perfect” for the use of the tires.
“If ever there was a scenario where rain tires made sense, we found it tonight,” Keselowski said. “Short tracks on a track where it’s just barely wet. I thought it was well played out.”
Denny Hamlin, who placed fifth in heat No. 1, wasn’t concerned about what his chances were heading from a wet Saturday night into a Sunday where there will be clear skies and a temperature of 71 at the start time.
“We got enough knowledge of what teammates are doing, what adjustments they make here from day to night,” Hamlin said. “We have enough knowledge that while it’s a disadvantage for us drivers, everyone figures it out so quickly that it won’t be bad.”
As for how the wet tire performed, Hamlin was impressed.
“I’m just more encouraged (that) Goodyear can build a tire that is really fast to start and falls off,” Hamlin said. “You got the blueprint. We really should spend some time working on stuff like this for other short tracks.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver then compared the falloff seen at North Wilkesboro to another Speedway Motorsports track — the much larger and faster Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“If (Goodyear) could just split the middle and say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make a compound between the slick and the rain (tire),’ you probably have way more falloff,” Hamlin said. “People talk about how slick this race track is, the falloff is not really what you would think. We falloff as much at Las Vegas as what we falloff here. It was more encouraging about what we can do in the future with better tires.”