NASCAR makes change to race surface at Bristol ahead of Night Race

A little bit of a change to the Bristol surface ahead of tonight’s Night Race. PJ1, not resin, has been applied to the lower groove. The idea behind the change from NASCAR is to open up the track for multi-groove racing.

Resin was already on the track and after the Xfinity Series race, NASCAR weighed what it should do before the Cup Series race. Drivers prefer PJ1 and so that is the reasoning behind choosing it over resin.

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There is perhaps a hope that this will lead to more tire degradation. NASCAR also scrubbed the rubber off the top of the track to allow drivers to get up against the wall earlier in the race

According to Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, NASCAR released a statement regarding the surface at Bristol.

“Following a discussion with drivers, Goodyear and the racetrack, NASCAR will apply approximately two feet of PJ1 to the bottom of the racing surface and clean the top groove of excess rubber.”

Drivers and teams noted that the tires were not wearing out as they did in the spring race. This is perhaps due to the temperature, it was a cool day at the first event. However, at a test over the summer, the tire degradation was similar.

Whatever the reason, teams are not expecting major tire wear tonight. That might change if the temperature drops enough and that PJ1 really gets active. Maybe someone didn’t “pee” in the rubber mixture as Denny Hamlin eloquently put it earlier this year.

Bristol Night Race will eliminate four from playoffs

Tonight four drivers will have their championship hopes dashed. Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. – three future Hall of Famers, are 6, 12, and 14 points below the cutline. Harrison Burton is 20 points down in 16th.

Something has to give. Those three drivers likely know how to get around Bristol better than most. But it isn’t as simple as that. Keselowski starts P23 and Burton will start P34 on the second to last row. Truex and Hamlin, to their credit, qualified P4 and P8, respectively.

The field will be led to green by Alex Bowman. He is making big statements in the playoffs. If he were to win the Bristol Night Race it would be his first Cup Series victory at the track. But there are drivers like his teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron right behind him hoping to do the same.

Look out for Carson Hocevar who qualified P7 and Corey LaJoie who starts P9. Spire Motorsports looks a lot different since the postseason began.