Team Penske’s Austin Cindric explained how NASCAR’s horsepower bump will produce extreme tire falloff at Martinsville Speedway. He expects drivers to step off the throttle to preserve rubber.
NASCAR’s 750-horsepower package at Darlington led to 16 lead changes among eight drivers. Many drivers praised the package for its passing ability, but maintained that the front-end nose wash was still a predominant struggle. Joey Logano, in particular, wanted more tire falloff for better racing.
The onus is now upon Goodyear to deliver the right balance between degradation and durability. The last time Goodyear brought softer sets was at Bristol, where tire wear and corded sets produced a chaotic race.
Cindric believes in a similar occurrence at Martinsville this year.
“We’ve trended over the last few years of going to tires that definitely wear out more and more at Martinsville,” he said via X/SiriusXM,”On top of that, now we’re adding adding the power and you know, there were times last year Martinsville where you start to get a full throttle as the right rear and the right front tires fall off, so I definitely think it’s going to make an impact, probably more so than maybe anywhere else.”
“We’re doing two u-turns and coming from a stop in comparison to most the places we go. So from what I did on the sim today and everything else, I think it’s definitely going to make an impact and you’re definitely going to have to be pretty nice to those tires,” Cindric added.
Austin Cindric finished among the top-5 at Darlington, making it his maiden top-10 of the season as well. His teammate Ryan Blaney finished among the podium places and took home 42 points.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares verdict on NASCAR’s horsepower package at Darlington
Dale Earnhardt Jr. dropped an honest take on NASCAR’s 750-horsepower package at the recently concluded Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. The Cup Series veteran believes NASCAR can ‘move forward’ with the change.
He also noted that removing downforce from underneath the car and stripping away the diffuser aided the racing product. On the latest episode of Dalr Jr. Download, Earnhardt said,
“It didn’t do anything bad. It didn’t produce anything extraordinary. I think it’s Darlington….Goodyear’s done some great work on the tire. We had guys that were able to pass, able to make moves.”
The 293-lap event saw Tyler Reddick win his fourth trophy in six races, a feat last achieved by Bill Elliott in 1992. The 23XI Racing driver had to overcome a multitude of issues and managed to beat a dominant Brad Keselowski by more than five seconds.
Keselowski was disappointed to lose, but admitted it would’ve been worse if he had the fastest car and still came up short.
Edited by Vignesh Kanna
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