Wet Weather Tires "Did a Great Job" in First Damp Intermediate Oval Test
Wet weather racing at 1.5-mile speedways? It could be a reality in the NASCAR National Series ranks in the not-so-distant future. On Monday following this past weekend's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, NASCAR held a wet weather tire test at Homestead, the first NASCAR wet weather tire test ever at an intermediate oval.
According to Brad Moran, NASCAR Cup Series managing director, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB's John Hunter Nemechek, and Ryan Preece, who was representing RFK Racing and Ford, were given a total of five different wet weather tire compounds to test throughout the day. Goodyear brought one controlled tire and four alternate compound sets of wet weather tires for teams and drivers to try.
Moran, who spoke to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday about the ground-breaking wet weather tire test at Homestead, the series managing director spoke highly of the wet weather tires.
"They wet the track down the night before, so [the track] was damp, and they got it wet prior to the start of the test. From my reports, and we'll go through this thoroughly later today in our competition meeting, the tires held up really well," Moran said. "They did a great job."
While Moran conceded that there is still work to be done on perfecting a wet weather package at 1.5-mile ovals due to the higher speeds at those facilities than short tracks, and road courses, where wet weather tires have been used previously in the NASCAR Cup Series, he says all of the drivers at the test agreed on the same tire as the one that performed the best throughout the session.
“They were running up against the wall and kind of all over the racetrack in the wet. There was some spray, which we anticipated," Moran admitted. "The speeds are obviously much higher when we go to mile-and-a-halfs, so we’ve probably got a little work to do there. But overall, it was a really good test. All three drivers agreed on the tire they all liked; they were all in agreement that it was the best tire. We gained a lot.”
While wet weather tires have been an option on road courses in NASCAR since the late 1990s (they were first utilized in qualifying for the 1997 NASCAR Cup Series exhibition event in Suzuka, Japan), lengthy rain delays have wreaked havoc on the television windows that NASCAR races are constrained to in recent years.
Due to the large number of lengthy rain delays, NASCAR started to wonder about the viability of racing on damp short tracks in an effort to shorten rain delays, and possibly get races to their scheduled distances when up against darkening skies at tracks without lighting systems. Since being implemented, wet weather tires have already been utilized at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the 2023 All-Star Race, Richmond Raceway earlier this year, and at New Hampshire, which allowed that race to make it to, and beyond its scheduled 301-lap distance.
The USA Today 301 at New Hampshire was able to finish after 305 laps following an overtime finish. NASCAR has been pleased with what wet weather tires have brought, option-wise, at short tracks on weather-impacted days.
“We started doing some testing a few years ago,” Moran said. “Obviously, we got to see more of it this year, and it worked out very well in New Hampshire as well as North Wilkesboro. It certainly helped us get back to racing and helped the fans have the opportunity to enjoy the race when they come."
Now, we could be nearing a day where wet weather tires become a viable option for NASCAR to utilize at 1.5-mile intermediate ovals such as Homestead, Las Vegas, Kansas, Charlotte, and Texas.
Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.