For the first time, the Cup Series ran soft and hard compound tyres in a regular season race.
Previously, alternative compounds have only been used in the All Star Race – and that was with limited success.
At Richmond Raceway, teams had the ability to use two sets of soft compounds tyres in-race.
Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez made massive headway on the softer “option” tyre and shot to the lead.
“It was fun,” said Suarez.
“It was like Mario Kart with a star.”
However, his hard work was undone when he got stuck on the harder “prime” tyre on a restart while the lion’s share of the field behind him switched compounds.
The gamble to use the soft compound tyre earlier in the race ultimately didn’t pay dividends as Suarez went on to finish 10th.
“These option tyres… if NASCAR and the fans didn’t like it, I don’t know what they would like because they were amazing,” he said.
“The strategy played a huge role in what everyone was doing; what we were doing and everyone’s different agenda.
“It was fun. I enjoyed it. The guys did an amazing job with the strategy. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out at the end, but we gave it a shot and we ended up with a 10th place finish.”
The soft tyre offered a competitive advantage for the best part of 30 to 40 laps before degrading.
“I thought it was neat to see who put them on and when,” said Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney
“They would go and then they would kind of fall off a cliff, so I thought that was pretty neat how it reacted like that.
“I’ll be curious to see what happens going forward.”
NASCAR and Goodyear hailed the move as a success.
“They fired off immediately and were more than a half-second faster than the prime, which is big on a short track,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing
“Also, the options gave up significantly more than the primes over a long run.
“What was really exciting was how different teams used the option tyre at different times to accomplish their own goals.
“For example, Daniel Suarez put them on early in the race and charged from the middle of the pack to take the lead, while Kyle Busch put them on at the end of Stage 2 to try to get a lap back.
“Overall, the primes/options tyre set-ups highlighted the risk versus reward we were exactly looking for.”
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