Denny Hamlin reveals NASCAR plans to focus on tires to fix short track issues, not horsepower

“They’re gonna really focus on tires and tracks,” Hamlin said. “… Goodyear was there. Obviously, they hear us loud and clear on what we’re trying to achieve. The biggest difference with Next Gen versus Gen 6 is that the loads are significantly lower than what they were. Really on the left sides is the big place where we really need to get the tire wear working a bit more on Next Gen is the left side wear. So, they’re gonna try to get really aggressive at some tracks. They got some tire tests coming up and they showed us the schedule for that.

“They [NASCAR] definitely said publicly last week, and they said it to us that horsepower is just not an option for various reasons. If we’re going to keep the horsepower, we should definitely in my opinion work on getting rid of the shifting. In order to do that, they’re going to need to make the upper RPM slightly higher or else we’re gonna be running just way too low RPM in the middle of the corner. I certainly think that shifting is not helping at all on the short tracks, but beyond that, it looks like we’re going to focus on tires to fix the short tracks.”

Denny Hamlin: NASCAR done tinkering with aero on short tracks

NASCAR debuted a new aero package for short tracks and road courses in the Cup Series this season. The new package includes a simplified diffuser on the Next Gen car, the elimination of engine panel strakes, more simplified diffuser strakes and a 3-inch spoiler. Thus far, three racetracks have used the package: Phoenix Raceway, Richmond Raceway and Martinsville Speedway.

The one short track race this season which didn’t use the new short track package, was the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. In that race, tire wear was extreme, which drew favorable reviews from drivers and fans.

Hamlin said that NASCAR appears to be done “tinkering with aero on short tracks.”

“It’s safe to say that I think NASCAR is done with tinkering with aero on short tracks. Which thank God it was never aero,” Hamlin said. “So, I think if anything I think that downforce that they took off of the cars would continue to not help the tire. It just made — it’s not wearing the tire. You got to have downforce to wear a tire down. And as we took downforce off, while I agree with that main sentiment, it’s, just it doesn’t wear tires.

“So, it’s just kind of a — I think we’re focused on the tires. That’s what we need to do. Let’s see what happens out of this and I know we said this a year ago, but Goodyear — they’re getting a lot of pressure I think from NASCAR to help fix these short tracks and fix them soon.”