Christopher Bell won the USA Today 301 at New Hampshire over the weekend, a race that incorporated the use of NASCAR’s new wet weather tires. But while the new tires were used, the teams were not in charge of the decision on when or how to switch to them.
NASCAR instead made all the decisions on when teams would put on the wet weather tires, then mandated when teams could change them.
Eventually, there’s some thought that the organization will hand over those kind of decisions to the drivers. Most drivers seem to be in favor of that move. But Christopher Bell’s crew chief, Adam Stevens, had an entirely different take.
He shared it with the Dale Jr. Download podcast.
Essentially, Stevens is worried that on oval tracks, which handle differently than road courses, teams would try to jump the gun changing from wet weather tires to slicks to get a leg up on the field, which could decrease driver safety.
“Someone will go for the slicks and take on way too much risk,” Stevens said. “That risk puts not only their team in danger but all the teams around them. I think the oval math is just fundamentally different than the road course math.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a contrasting viewpoint from Christopher Bell’s right hand man, taking the side of driver responsibility.
“I have zero stress or concern, I think, about putting a driver on slicks out on that racetrack,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I mean, it’s treacherous, you know, but yeah I think that we’ve eventually got to do that, don’t we? Don’t we eventually have to go through with this?
“If he had said pit road, the dangers of pit road and all that, I would agree. But worrying about a driver sliding a slick into the fence at Turn 1, that’s the damned driver’s responsibility. So we’ve got to eventually get these guys to where they understand what the tires are capable of doing in those situations.”
That’s the primary concern that Earnhardt Jr. has at this point when it comes to the wet weather tires. Pit road can already be a dangerous place. Add slick conditions and it gets even moreso.
Having drivers like Christopher Bell humming in and out to change tires can potentially cause more issues.
But that’s a separate issue from letting the crews choose their tires themselves. Earnhardt Jr. elaborated.
“It’s kind of like pitting a bit early and not having enough fuel for the green/white checkered,” he said. “You can finish the race, but if we get a green/white checkered we’re screwed. Crew chiefs and drivers take risks every lap. But eventually I think we’ve got to get to a point to where we finally just follow through.
“I’m not really worried. I think the only track concerns, like Adam has, will net out and teams and drivers will learn what they need to learn. But how we get to where we want to be where there’s good confidence about safety on pit road is probably the biggest hurdle or hill to climb.
“That’s the one thing that’s going to be the last hurdle.”
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