Kyle Larson not a fan of the width of the grippy substance in Bristol's bottom groove
For the second straight race, Bristol has applied a substance to enhance grip in the bottom groove of its corners for Sunday’s Cup Series race. But according to polesitter and points leader Kyle Larson, the application this year is wider than last year’s.
The track added VHT resin — you’ll notice a black streak in the corners where it is — to provide for more grip (and therefore speed) at the bottom of the track. After Bristol added progressive banking in 2007, the top groove slowly became the preferred way to go around the track. In an effort to make the bottom lane more enticing, the track added the resin to the bottom groove for last year’s summer race. And it worked, as the bottom lane was usable, especially when cars had fresh tires.
But Larson said Friday that the resin application area for Sunday’s race makes the bottom groove much easier to use than in 2016. The finesse the groove required eight months ago isn’t needed any longer.
“I thought the Fall race, I think it was like three or four feet wide,” Larson said at his press conference after practice Friday. “I thought that was a good width because you could get your left sides in it and you really had to be cautious of hitting your marks every corner. Now it’s like you just fire off from the corner and it doesn’t really matter where you enter as long as your right sides are in the grip you are going to rip around the corner. Just makes it too easy for us and I don’t think that is good for racing.”
Does the wider tract of VHT mean the primary groove will stay towards the inside for the entire race? While the bottom lane was effective early in tire runs last August, the preferred way to get around Bristol for the majority of the race seemed to be the middle and top portions of the track. And Chase Elliott, who starts second, said he thinks the groove will inch its way towards the top as Sunday’s race goes on. If it runs, of course. Rain is forecast for Saturday and Sunday and could possibly push Sunday’s race to Monday.
“To me the difference in what I see is like we have seen at Martinsville where the folks, those of you that have walked across the race track after a Martinsville race, excluding this last race that we ran at Martinsville, there is always a lot of little pieces of marbles and rubber build up from just outside the groove all the way that kind of get pushed out all the way to the wall,” Elliott said. “For whatever reason, it is doing that here. So, I think it is just going to take a little more time to move the groove up because of that, but I do think it will go up eventually.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
