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DON’T DO THAT | Rain Tires Make Their Controversial Oval Debut

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Rain tires make their NASCAR oval debut at Martinsville, to much fanfare and criticism. Carson Hocevar finds himself in hot water once again.

Thumbnail Cred: NASCAR Digital, FOX Sports

#NASCAR #Martinsville #News

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46 comments

JackCSports April 15, 2023 at 8:00 pm

NASCAR race control needs a massive overhaul for all three series

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Ford Engine Builders V8 Power April 15, 2023 at 8:04 pm

You’re are so right!

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David S April 15, 2023 at 8:34 pm

Been watching for over 30 years and fans are never happy or rarely happy

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Big Hand April 15, 2023 at 8:56 pm

@David S Often times, people don`t know what they want.

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LionManatic April 15, 2023 at 9:07 pm

@David S Now it’s worst with social media, where you have more people not knowing what they want haha! I remember when they rallied for more Road Courses, and now they don’t want the Road Courses. Or how they rallied for the 550 hp package a few seasons ago, and then all of a sudden became the worst thing ever. Now they want the Green White Checker rule to go, after they nearly rioted in 2015(?) at the fall Talladega race , when Dale Jr lost to Logano on the final restart. Haha!

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Revival April 16, 2023 at 2:12 am

@LionManatic or in 2004 at Talladega when Jeff Gordon won instead of Dale Jr

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DennyDelivers April 15, 2023 at 8:02 pm

if you ever feel useless or down on yourself, just know that at least you’re not a rain tire on an oval

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Joshua Burns April 15, 2023 at 8:58 pm

Or if you ever feel useless, just remember that you can rotate the square in Tetris

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LionManatic April 15, 2023 at 9:08 pm

Or if you ever feel down on yourself, at least you’re not some guy name Carson.H , throwing a fit after the slightest inconvenience.

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A M April 15, 2023 at 10:09 pm

It literally was used to help the race start earlier…? What does this comment even mean.

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NASCAR Memer Owen April 15, 2023 at 8:04 pm

Pretty sure that scene in the first cars movie with the King and McQueen applies to Carson.
“You’ve got more talent in one lugnut then most cars have in their whole body…

but you’re stupid.”

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Big Hand April 15, 2023 at 8:57 pm

Who is like the young Lightning McQueen these days?

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High Road Media April 15, 2023 at 11:16 pm

​@Big Hand CBell, Reddick, Zane Smith, Larson, Byron, Austin Hill…. Just to name a few.

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Crafton Fan April 16, 2023 at 10:49 am

@High Road Media McQueen might actually be the best NASCAR driver to ever exist.

In 2006 he started his rookie campaign, 3rd in the standings. He retired in 2017, although he only made one start. In those 10 years, he won 7 championships.

So, Lightning McQueen=Jimmie Johnson

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Triple P Productionz April 15, 2023 at 8:09 pm

the falloff wasnt even because of the grooves, it was from it being a softer compound

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Alex Hendel April 15, 2023 at 9:22 pm

well this makes my comment rather redundant lol but yeah you are entirely correct, the pattern of the tyre doesn’t matter at all, it’s what the tyre itself is made of.
engineering tyres with rapid fall off and fragility sounds good in theory but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t take forever to actually strike a decent balance between having a good race tyre and having manufactured a chunk of rubber that’s made the racing worse, not better.

*flashes back to SIlverstone 2013*

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Noah Mielke April 15, 2023 at 10:28 pm

Correct. It was what the tire was made of. Not the shapes on the tires.

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Bryon Kidder April 15, 2023 at 11:05 pm

Tire falloff is good…lol

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Gordon Fraley April 16, 2023 at 4:25 pm

It’s a bit of both. Less contact patch means less rubber doing more work. That’ll make it wear faster, in addition to the compound being softer.

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XenonStriker003 April 15, 2023 at 8:14 pm

I agree that yesterday’s race is a complete joke. And I also agree that Hocevar deserves to be called out for that move he tried to do at Martinsville.

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JGR4LIFE April 15, 2023 at 8:15 pm

“Rule # 1 in stock car racing is learn how to wreck someone without wrecking yourself” – Landon Cassill

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JonnyViper April 15, 2023 at 11:57 pm

I’m so glad we remember Landon Cassill for this.

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Eric Klein April 15, 2023 at 8:27 pm

I think part of the issue is that the in race penalties don’t mean much in the win and in championship system. If you aren’t really in contention for the win anyway then as long as the penalty doesn’t affect your playoff eligibility it doesn’t matter. Compare that to a 2 lap penalty in the Chase or Winston Cup era. That would essentially be a 20 point penalty and you will feel that later in the season when trying to make a championship push.

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PaulJr April 16, 2023 at 4:17 am

Great point

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Robert Stone April 16, 2023 at 1:16 pm

Who gets to make the call on whats a penalty and whats just hard racing? Is it like stick and ball sports, if you get a bad call and it coast you then that sucks you just got to get over it? What if a car squezzed me in to the wall and I dont lift or trys clearing him self squizzing me in to the grass and i dont lift, do i get a penalty calls he wrecked him self trying to clear him self? Should they do like f1 all contact is a penalty on some one? I thank boys have at it is the only fair way to do it.

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Jamie Blanton April 16, 2023 at 2:28 pm

The playoff system sucks period ! Not used anywhere else at your local track .no.1 can go to 16 in one race or vice versa sucks balls !

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Dawn McLees April 15, 2023 at 8:57 pm

About the time you think Carson has it figured out he goes back to what he does best.

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GrahamCrackerGaming April 15, 2023 at 9:13 pm

I kinda just wanna point out, I think this was for the LMP2 cars, which run Goodyear tires as well. I was watching the WEC FP3 at Portimão and there was talk that Goodyear made a rain tire that was supposed to be better in drying conditions to eliminate the need for an Intermediate tire. Which I kinda found funny after hear these, basically Intermediate Tires is what they r for NASCAR, can only go like 25 laps in drying conditions cause how soft they r. NASCAR definitely needs to work on how wet the track needs to be before it starts becoming Charlotte Roval 2020 or COTA 2021 all over again. Cause literally they could just got some actual rain tires they race at any other road course with and probably could’ve actually ran they whole thing just fine. There wasn’t much spray and you’re talking about a half mile double hairpin like track, obviously it’s gonna dry rapidly when ya got 30+ cars/trucks running over the surface like 5-10 laps per min. Not sure how much a rain tire is compared to a slick, but definitely would’ve saved teams money just to buy a certain amount of slicks and wets. If NASCAR is gonna commit to running rain at short tracks, they gotta work on how wet the track has to be to run em. Was a good start, but definitely have tons of adjustments that need to happen in order to work.

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Easy E Network April 16, 2023 at 5:09 pm

The rain tires are more because they probably are more expensive to make.

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GrahamCrackerGaming April 17, 2023 at 1:39 am

@Easy E Network r rain tires really more expensive? Or r we just talking about the new oval rain tire in general?

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Johnny Boy April 15, 2023 at 9:16 pm

I think they should use the wet tires they use for road courses. They should race in the rain unless like a down pour or if the spray is really bad which reduces visibility and causes a safety concern. Rain delays suck especially when watching at home since they can talk about so many topics. I tend to just walk away from the races and just record it and come back later if they race continues.

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Nathan Kelly April 15, 2023 at 9:21 pm

In my opinion, I think that the first stint with the rain tires was a sort of test, how would the tires hold up in “slightly damp but mostly dry” conditions in a race where the drivers are actually competing and being more aggressive and later on in the race didn’t use them because 1 not all teams had multiple sets, and 2 they felt like the results they got were good.

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Easy E Network April 16, 2023 at 5:06 pm

Yes, they did not want wrecks and slow slow speeds.

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pwncakes1337 April 15, 2023 at 9:35 pm

It’s like the intermediate tire in F1. Made for a damp/drying track.

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Brian F. April 15, 2023 at 9:45 pm

All you have to remember is F1 wet tires are one of the biggest jokes still and I’m not surprised at all this happened. Totally agree in the smaller series the wet tires should be paid for by someone else and not the teams.

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Blue Monkey April 16, 2023 at 11:29 am

Why are they a joke?

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Brian F. April 16, 2023 at 2:55 pm

@Blue Monkey  F1 has an intermediate and wet tire. The intermediate is fine, but every time the wet can be used, they postpone or call the race instead. Monaco and Suzuka last year are examples of this. One can argue valid reasons of lack of visibility and grip are why they don’t use it. Which then leads to: why do they exist at all?

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Blue Monkey April 17, 2023 at 3:48 pm

@Brian F. Turkey 2020 is a good example of when the wet tires are useful. The wet tires themselves are generally not the issue – particularly aerodynamics combined with the high speeds are the main issue, which is difficult to rectify.

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Lord Voldemort the best looking man ever April 15, 2023 at 10:06 pm

Good job Eric you finally did a good thing with the stand up to the corporations they’re killing the little man

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Joe Yager April 15, 2023 at 10:39 pm

As a race team owner the most expensive racing costs are tires and travel to and from the track. Smaller lower funded teams can’t afford to buy two complete sets of tires for each race. In NASCAR each 4-tire pit stops cost $1200. The wet tires “lasted 25 laps” so that means that they are worn out in about 12.5 miles.

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Stephen Ullman April 15, 2023 at 10:59 pm

You nailed it Eric. Make the networks pay for the tires.

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Ryan Felix April 16, 2023 at 1:02 am

Love that they are learning how to use rain tires on ovals! There’s a learning curve, give them some grace on this.

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John Haas April 16, 2023 at 1:11 am

They’re not using rain tires on ovals they are damp condition tires

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Ryan Felix April 17, 2023 at 3:03 am

@John Haas Are we really gonna get technical? Smh

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Daniel Chai April 16, 2023 at 6:27 am

It is worth trying and it sucks that they didn’t give it much effort. But at the same time, it’s still the first time racing on an oval that wet. With the weather, we actually got an official race which is better than we ever would’ve gotten in the past. So it is what it is and there’s no reason to be too upset about it IMO

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Terry Costakis April 16, 2023 at 9:58 am

As usual, Eric provides the best NASCAR analysis of anybody. Better than some of the television analysts.

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