WATCH: Denny Hamlin reveals JGR wasted nearly $1 million worth Goodyear tires in 2022

Tier performance was one of the biggest challenges Cup teams faced in the start of the Next-Gen era.

WATCH: Denny Hamlin reveals JGR wasted nearly $1 million worth Goodyear tires in 2022

Denny Hamlin and Joe Gibbs (Credits: IMAGO)

The tire situation in NASCAR Cup Series has been pretty turbulent ever since the Next-Gen cars were introduced in 2022. It is because of the uncertainty the teams had over how the cars would behave. This uncertainty was at its peak in the 7th Gen car debut season. The tire allocation for the weekend usually leads to teams possessing extra tires that are unused and unnecessary.

This has led to a lot of talk regarding NASCAR’s sustainability and tire wastage. Recently on the Action Detrimental Podcast Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin spoke about the issue teams faced in the 2022 season. The No:11 Toyota Camry driver also revealed how that year his team had an inventory of tires worth nearly $1 million dollars go to waste.

Rubber ages and old tires can really do damage to a car. So all of it goes to waste. Jared do you know how much JGR had in extra tire inventory in the first year of next gen in 2020? How much money worth of tires was spent and never ran? Nearly 1 million, nearly 1 million worth of dollars was spent on tires that were never run.
Denny Hamlin said via the Action Detrimental Podcast.

The amount of money that was spent on unused tires could definitely be used for something else, improving the team’s facilities. The 23XI Racing co-owner seems concerned about how there’s no option to return the unused tires to Goodyear for sustainability and cost-cutting purposes.

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Denny Hamlin reveals what NASCAR can do to improve short-track racing with next-gen cars

Over the last few weeks, NASCAR has come under a lot of scrutiny for their racing product on short tracks like Richmond Raceway and the Texas Motor Speedway. The issues seem to arise due to the next-gen car’s lack of horsepower and overall short-track package. This has led JGR driver Denny Hamlin to share what can be done in order to improve the situation.

Denny Hamlin and No:11 Crew celebrating Bristol Cup race win
Denny Hamlin and No:11 Crew celebrating Bristol Cup race win (Via IMAGO)
They (NASCAR) definitely said publicly last week, and they said it to us that horsepower is just not an option for various reasons. If we’re going to keep the horsepower, we should definitely in my opinion work on getting rid of the shifting.
Denny Hamlin said.

The driver also added how NASCAR should actively work on improving the left tires because traditionally those are the tires that are causing issues at short tracks. NASCAR will definitely want to look into Hamlin’s suggestions to improve their wheel-to-wheel action and overall racing action. As of now though, the Goodyear and NASCAR seem to be working on alternative fixes.

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