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NASCAR's Next Gen cars made their first visit to Kansas Speedway for Sunday’s AdventHealth 400. Drivers battled in challenging conditions and tried to get a handle on the lift-off oversteer.
Along with that, NASCAR saw increased loads on the left rear tires, which caused tire flats for a handful of drivers. After multiple flat left rear tires last weekend at Kansas Speedway, some crew chiefs were uncertain about what caused them.
It also made them anxious about what could happen at this week’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway with the same combination of tires.
Speaking to NBC Sports, Chase Elliott's crew chief Alan Gustafson spoke about team’s left rear tire issues, stating:
“It’s something that has certainly been at the forefront of our mind. We had the issue at Darlington. We feel liked we did what we needed to do to make sure it didn’t happen again.
"Protected against it here. We had all of our tires that came off inspected and cut apart by Goodyear and they were all find up to that point. The randomness of it is certainly very concerning.”
DuraMAX Drydene 400 winner Chase Elliott’s five consecutive top-10 finish streak ended on Sunday when he spun out while running sixth. His left rear was flattened. His teammate William Byron also lost a tire while leading on lap 113.
Later, speaking about Elliott and Byron’s flat tire issue, Gustafson said:
“There were enough configuration differences between the two of us, that it’s just hard to draw one conclusion.”
“It’s obviously a combination of everything” - NASCAR crew chief on tire issues
Martin Truex Jr.'s #19 Toyota Camry also suffered a flat left rear tire just before the end of Stage 2. After that, the #19 team’s race had changed.
Speaking to NBC Sports, Truex’s crew chief James Small expressed his disappointment about his team’s tire issues and said:
“One lap to go in that stage and it went down. Everything else looked great. That was the most conservative we’ve been all race. It’s obviously a combination of everything. Where we stacked up with our teammates, I’d never think it would be an issue. It ruined our race.”
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell #20 Toyota also had a rear tire go down and it punctured as Bell led under caution on lap 64.
