Kyle Larson Defends NASCAR’s $2.3 Billion Partner With a 3-Word Advice for Fans’ Bristol Backlash

The Goodyear tire seems to always be one of the major talking points before a short-rack race. And this was the case for the playoff race at Bristol last Sunday. Expectations were sky high given how the spring race turned out to be. Excess tire wear forced teams and drivers to improvise their strategy, which led to a thrilling racing spectacle for the audience.

Although this was just a one-off race experience, the expectations, and the bar were set high for the short track. However, last Sunday’s race at Bristol proved to be a rather stale and uneventful event, with Kyle Larson comfortably snagging his fifth win of the year. There was practically no tire fall-off, and the NASCAR community held Goodyear responsible for spoiling what could’ve been a repeat of the spring event.

However, Larson has now come out in defense of Goodyear. Stating that the issues with the short-track package go deeper than just the tires. In doing so, he took a subtle jab at NASCAR and its latest invention, the Next-Gen car.

Kyle Larson had enough of the tire talks from the Bristol race

One of the big arguments that fans made online was long green lap runs. The HMS star was able to lead 462 of the 500 laps, making a statement win ahead of the next round. Now, with the way the spring race played out, a rather similar race was expected by the fans as well as NASCAR. However, the script was reversed, as there was practically no tire falloff.

As a result, plenty of the race fans singled out Goodyear for failing to deliver a thrilling race. But was this outrage and blame on the tire manufacturer justified? Kyle Larson doesn’t think so. Taking to his X account, Larson cleared up the doubts regarding racing at Bristol with stats and practical experience.

“Bristol’s ALWAYS been tough to pass. Speed on pit road, and most likely there’s a good chance you’re going a lap down on the next run. That’s the way it is and has been for a very long time…I don’t have the answer to fix what we currently have, and neither do you, but please stop blaming Goodyear. It’s not a tire problem.” Larson shared this on X.

The practice runs somewhat gave the teams an idea that the tires weren’t degrading like they did last time around. Therefore, trying to create multiple racing groves, NASCAR decided to spray PJ1 over resin. And going by Larson’s response, a lot of people were questioning the spraying of PJ1 on the racetrack. “And also, have any of you ran around Bristol with or without PJ1? Or resin for that matter. Yeah, that’s right… so 🤐 Temper your expectations. We’re driving spec race cars.”

Not only Kyle Larson but his rival Denny Hamlin shared a somewhat similar opinion about the Next Gen car on his podcast, Actions Detrimental.

NASCAR is trying to solve a car problem with Goodyear tires, say Hamlin

It’s not just the short tracks, but across the board, the Next-Gen car has found itself in trouble for one reason or another. Time and again, drivers like Hamlin have advocated for an increase in horsepower to mitigate the shortcomings of the new racing product. But NASCAR has remained hesitant over these demands. Rather, they tried to tackle this issue with the help of Goodyear tires. It’s led to some encouragement, but far from what the ideal racing experience drivers would like.

Denny Hamlin has been a major critic of the Next-Gen car, and siding with Kyle Larson’s opinion, he highlighted the real issue. “We are trying to save this car or the idea of how this car got made…Jared you were right that it is a car problem; we are trying to fix it with tires because that’s the most economical way for us to fix it. We didn’t do a good job with design from the get-go, and this is what we got.” Hamlin said this on the Action Detrimental podcast.

So what’s the plan ahead for NASCAR in trying to solve this crisis? Well, Next-Gen 2.0 isn’t going to roll out anytime soon. Therefore, the only option for NASCAR is to try and devise a plan with Goodyear. One race shouldn’t overshadow the progress they have made so far.