The racing product in Bristol has been a confusing mess since 2022. Firstly, there were the massive aerodynamic changes wrought by the Next-Gen car. However, the puzzling phenomenon in the spring 2024 race, where tires shredded in 30-40 laps, set off a new challenge. NASCAR and Goodyear put their heads together to seek the perfect tire package. And the culmination after 18 months of effort did not particularly thrill NASCAR drivers, including Chase Elliott.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver, along with other veterans, faced harrowing crashes on last Saturday’s Bristol night race. That was partly due to Goodyear’s science experiment succeeding, probably a little too much. So Chase Elliott calls for greater caution while experimenting with tire types.
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Chase Elliott seeks the ‘right balance’
Well, the spring 2024 race left most Cup Series drivers thrilled. The 54 lead changes and immense tire management felt like a good treat. However, the Fall 2025 race in Bristol, despite being similar, had a caveat. During practice for the Bass Pro Shops night race, Goodyear’s new tires barely shredded amidst high temperatures. But with temperatures cooling to 60 degrees during the race, drivers and crew chiefs were completely taken by surprise. Barely 25 laps into the race, Joey Logano’s spotter said, “It’s happening.” The high-flyers of the game surprisingly could not survive the ferocious tire wear. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson both finished outside the top 30.
So did Chase Elliott, who came across an unfortunate wreck on lap 310. And in an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, the Hendrick Motorsports driver agreed with drivers like Denny Hamlin, who criticized Goodyear. “Look, I applaud everybody involved for kind of attacking that science experiment with the tire and trying to make it do something cool and different and replicate a race that no one really understood why it happened,” he said.
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Chase Elliott called on NASCAR to be a little bit more in control of its tire experiments. Despite appreciating the efforts, he asked for a less sloppy approach. “Being in that race up there last spring, I think that there are always ways to tweak and help and make it better. I’m not sure what the right balance is. But it’s always important to try and make the product as best we can. I don’t want it to feel gimmicky.”
With an extra emphasis on the right-side tires, the left sides did not wear out. What is more, Goodyear’s experiment left three Ford drivers, Josh Berry, Austin Cindric, and Chad Finchum, catching fires in their right-side wheels. Chase Elliott continued that he wanted drivers to achieve more without such risks. “I want the drivers to be able to make a big difference when it comes to, if it is going to be a tire conservation race, how you do that, and the skill it takes to achieve that, too. So maybe we can find it with the tire, and also improve in terms of the car with time as well.”
Clearly, Chase Elliott was among the discontented drivers after the Bristol night race. That is more justifiable given the HMS driver’s dire situation at present.
Teetering on the brink of disaster
For most of 2025, fans applauded Chase Elliott for his consistency. The No. 9 Chevrolet driver never finished outside the top 20 – until the Watkins Glen race. There, he faced poor execution of pit strategy. Then, in Richmond, he got swept up in a wreck not of his making. Finally, John Hunter Nemechek and Denny Hamlin’s moves wrecked Elliott in Bristol, and the latter finished in 38th place. These instances left Elliott desperate, as he said recently: “I just feel like, yeah, you’re kind of in a spot where, ‘Man, we really didn’t deserve to be here based on the week before. Let’s go and make the very most of it… I just feel like there’s nothing to lose for us at this point.”
During his miserable stretch, Chase Elliott has dropped from second place in the full-season points to sixth. He has also gone from leading the Cup Series in average finishes, a privilege which Christopher Bell has claimed, to third. Despite advancing in the playoffs, Elliott will start the round of 12 only five points above the round of 8 cutoff. This leaves him at a nasty risk. If Elliott continues his stretch of despair into the following races, he will be eliminated in the round of 12 for the first time since 2016. So, the No. 9 team needs to get back into the speed department on a war footing.
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With playoff challenges looming ahead of him, Chase Elliott has a lot on his plate. So do NASCAR and Goodyear, as Elliott and his compatriots claim. Let’s wait and see what develops in the sport’s tire experiment.