Crew chiefs upset with NASCAR for ‘last minute’ decision to apply PJ1 to Bristol track

Following a last-minute decision by NASCAR to apply PJ1 to the racing surface at Bristol, crew chiefs are anything but happy. Teams are now having to make late changes to their cars to adjust for the new compound on the track.

Drivers, for the most part, prefer PJ1 over resin. Mostly because the PJ1 compound wears off after a while and allows for the top groove to open up eventually.

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However, no one expected this to happen. NASCAR sent a message to teams at Bristol about the addition of the PJ1. While that statement claimed that they contacted drivers, some crew chiefs were unaware of the change.

Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut spoke to a few crew chiefs about the change.

“Yeah, no idea on the crew chief side,” said Drew Blickensderfer, crew chief of Noah Gragson and the No. 10 team.

Blickensderfer expressed frustration with the change due to the fact that teams had already set their cars up for what they were expecting after practice.

Then, at 1:00 PM EST, NASCAR let teams know about the PJ1. With the garage opening at 3:30 PM today, that doesn’t leave a lot of time to make adjustments.

“It’s going to change the race for sure,” Matt McCall, crew chief for Brad Keselowski said.

McCall was also left in the dark until the message from NASCAR went out.

“There was no meeting on our end. I just got the email saying they’re putting down up to two feet of PJ1 on the bottom and that’s all we knew,” McCall told Weaver.

Rodney Childers of Stewart-Haas and Mike Kelley of JTG Daugherty Racing were both upset about the timing of the announcement as well. It feels like NASCAR wanted Bristol to be a crap shoot and now it really could be.

NASCAR makes change at Bristol

So, here’s the timeline for this change. Ever since the spring race, NASCAR has been trying to figure out what happened with the tires at Bristol. It was severe, but the tire wear led to one of the best short track races of the Next Gen era.

During the 45-minute practice, for one reason or another, the Goodyear tires were not wearing down nearly the same. Drivers were pushing the tires as hard as they could and it wasn’t nearly the same degradation.

So, is adding the PJ1 NASCAR’s attempt to create more exciting racing? Were they worried about the lack of fall-off during practice and figured they could add PJ1 and scrape the rubber off the top and make the track more aggressive and racey?

Whatever NASCAR was thinking, crew chiefs in Bristol are not very happy. Drivers might like PJ1 over resin, but a last-minute addition to the track is not what anyone expected heading into the elimination race in the Round of 16.