Despite win, Christopher Bell rips NASCAR over option tire

NASCAR’s experimentation with different tire compounds over the last year has been a constant source of chatter in the ranks. And coming off the weekend at Phoenix, there are some definite opinions emerging.

Some of them strong, at that. Even race winner Christopher Bell opened up on the sport’s current tire outlook on an episode of the Dale Jr. Dowload with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“So Jr. I’m OK with, if they want to run the option tire as the primary tire, I think that would be perfectly fine,” Bell said. “What I don’t like is having two tire compound options which are limited-use and one compound is a significant advantage over the other one. Other forms of motorsports do it, I’m aware of that. But our racing is different.”

Recent NASCAR events featuring the different tires have produced widely different outcomes. When the softer option tire has a limited number of uses, teams have to strategize on when to use it.

Most teams have defaulted to holding the tires until late in the race. But with different drivers sometimes chasing different objectives — stage points vs. the win vs. fastest lap, for example — there can be different points that the soft option tires get slapped on.

Bell further explained the discrepancies. They’re worth noting.

“We have the planned stage breaks. Everybody knows when those yellow flags are coming out,” Bell said. “And if you’re a competitive car, your strategy is spelled out. You have to save the fastest set of tires for the end of the race if you are a car that is leading laps and contending for the win.

“And all that does is it allows guys that aren’t competing for the win and it gives them an advantage because they’re going to gamble and put their fast set of tires on before the competitive cars, and they’re going to drive right to the front, like we saw this weekend. If the yellow comes out, they’re probably not going to win if they’re out of tires, and that’s exactly how it played out this week.”

In other words, gambling has become a significant part of the equation for some NASCAR teams. There’s a lot of risk/reward involved.

Mostly, though, it just leads to a somewhat disjointed viewing experience. Some cars are flying by the field, only to fade late, while others save up and hope they get to use the tires for close to the length of a good run.

Bell’s not sure NASCAR is getting the best outcome. But that’s not necessarily the tires’ fault, just how the sport has allocated usage.

“With the planned yellow flags that we have with the stage breaks, I don’t think that you can have an option tire or two tire compounds in a race and it be legitimate off of competition,” Bell said. “Once again, are we competition or are we entertainment? That’s what it boils down to.”

That said, virtually all of the drivers that have spoken up on the new option tires from NASCAR is a fan of the tires themselves. They race really nicely.

For Bell, it’s just about continuing to tweak allocations and deciding on set standards for races.

“I think we are just going down the right path. We’re going down the right path,” Bell said. “We saw probably the best road course race we’ve had in a long time with that new tire. And I think that red tire that we had at Phoenix is certainly where we need to be. It gave the racecars a ton more feel, and you’re able to slide the car around more and not feel like you’re just on this brick and chattering across the racetrack.

“Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that we need to keep going down this path of getting softer tires, making the car drive where you can drive it hard and step over the limit and not crash each other. But having two compounds in one race makes it tough.”