Joey Logano breaks down the “challenge” new option tier policy would bring to Richmond

Joey Logano is unsure about the option tier attempt at the Richmond cup race work, as the first trial at North Wilkesboro yielded mixed result.

Joey Logano breaks down the “challenge” new option tier policy would bring to Richmond

Joey Logano (Via IMAGO)

NASCAR is set for a major experiment this coming race week at Richmond. They are set to introduce the option tier system for the Cook Out 400, with teams having the option to field either hard of soft tiers. If there is enough tier wear as it used to be on Sunday, this would give teams an opportunity to employee some impressive strategic gambles.  

While talking about the same, Team Penske Racing’s two times championship winning driver Joey Logano has explained the challenges awaiting the drivers because of the decision. He pointed out that the first challenge would be assessing how fast the soft tiers would be and the rate of the tier fall. If its’s more wear, the strategy gambles are on at Richmond.

The first challenge, or the first answer everybody wants to know, is how much faster is [the softer tire] and how much does it last? Is it just faster the whole run, like we’ve seen the option tire up to this point or is it going to actually fall off harder?
Joey Logano said at Richmond.  

He then recalled what happened at North Wilkesboro All Star race, which he won, where the system was first experimented with limited success due to the fact that tier fall off was limited. But he doesn’t expect the same to happen at Richmond because historically it has been a track with a lot or wear, hence he waiting to see what will happen.

When you look at [North] Wilkesboro when we did that, you had a track that just has no fall off, so it was just faster the whole time. Not to be surprised. But Richmond is a place where it wears out tires. It could be different there, and none of us will know until we get there. I don’t know. We’ll have to kind of wait and see.
Joey Logano added.

Joey Logano explains the significance of playoff points

In another discussion, Logano highlighted how it’s important to have playoff points that gets awarded for stage wins and race wins. He pointed out that this gives the deserved advantage to the drivers who was good throughout the season, as it is possible for drivers to go deep in playoff just on points, as he cited the example of Martin Truex Jr.

Joey Logano
Joey Logano (Credits: Beyond the Flag)
The 19 had a amount of playoff points, and they needed them. But you also saw cars that had no playoff points be able to string together three solid races and move to the next round or win one and move to the next round… It makes sense — if you run good the whole season, you should have an advantage. And that is the advantage.
Joey Logano said.

The 2024 season so far hasn’t been the very best for Logano though he is in the playoff with a race win. To go further in the post-season, he has to secure at least one more race win before the playoffs comes to an end.

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