Much of last week’s news cycle has been focused on NHRA’s fining and docking points from Elite Motorsports and Erica Enders.
Expect those talking points to change at their next event, the NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.
The question several Pro Stock racers are asking, but not attributing publicly out of fear of reprisal, is which one presents a more significant performance advantage. Does a beadlock wheel liner provide a better performance advantage than a set of tires manufactured eight years ago, allegedly different than the current spec tire?
Technically, it’s not against the rules, but it could be soon.
One Pro Stock driver openly offered that the tires manufactured in 2017 can give as much as a .03 advantage. Another driver went so far as to say that the current spec tire offered by Goodyear is presently subpar. The point is, they allege, something changed after the COVID shutdown in 2020, a point they say the tire manufacturer denies.
Apparently, it’s not hard to tell who’s running the older tires; the racers advise looking at the date codes on them.
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We are told NHRA is looking into the issue and there could be action that comes forth following the Richmond race.
“The merit of the rule of a spec tire was never intended for a team to hoard up tires and be running them eight years later,” another driver said.
If NHRA doesn’t intervene, these racers say they are prepared to park their teams.
While the contention is that the tire hasn’t changed over the years, one driver says clearly it has.
“[Goodyear] claims they haven’t changed the construction, but something has, and it’s changed the way the sidewall and everything works on it,” they said. “We can tell. You can’t buy as tall a tire as you could buy in 2017 or 2018. All the newer tires are all inch, inch and a half shorter.”
One racer referenced Pro Stock driver Brandon Miller as an example.
“This guy, he’s coming into Pro Stock; how did he know, when he was in Junior High School, he needed to be hoarding up tires so he could go Pro Stock racing? Yeah, that’s what you’re up against.”
Interestingly, seatbelts and window nets are inspected every two years. How much more crucial is a tire on a car running in excess of 210 miles per hour?
The other option NHRA has is to follow the NASCAR procedure and hand out tires at the start of the race.
