‘I’m All for Team Chaos’ — Denny Hamlin Sounds the Alarm With Explosive Revelation on Goodyear’s Bristol Tire

NASCAR and Goodyear hope a softer tire choice for Bristol Motor Speedway will spice up Saturday night’s action, but Denny Hamlin believes the gamble could unleash pure chaos. The Joe Gibbs Racing star didn’t hold back, warning that the new compound may turn the Bass Pro Shops Night Race into a wild, unpredictable showdown.

Will Goodyear’s Tire Gamble Turn Bristol into Chaos?

Goodyear confirmed last week that NASCAR Cup Series teams will run a softer right-side tire compound in the upcoming Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 13. According to Mark Keto, Goodyear’s Senior Project Manager for NASCAR, the change is intended to introduce more tire management into race strategy.

“Usually in the fall race, we see higher track temps than in the spring, and the cars put more rubber down,” Keto explained. “We decided to make a right-side compound adjustment to try to get more treadwear on a rubbered-in race track.”

He added that the softer construction should provide a better balance for Bristol’s notoriously tricky concrete layout, especially when paired with the track’s often unpredictable weather. But Hamlin isn’t buying the optimism.

Speaking on his popular “Actions Detrimental” podcast, the three-time Daytona 500 winner shared a startling story from tire testing that called the new product into question. Hamlin cited a troubling test result, saying, “They have this machine, apparently, like it’s sandpaper. There’s a tire that goes into this and like checks the wear, how does this tire going to wear under certain load?”

“And apparently, they put on the Bristol right side tire, and it shredded into the machine immediately.”

According to the 44-year-old driver, the compound was so soft that it created far more wear than expected. “It was so aggressive that it destroyed the machine, like it just unraveled and got caught in the machine.”

Hamlin added that Goodyear chalked the incident up to circumstance. The company apparently claimed the tire in question had come right off the production line without time to settle, which, in their view, explained the extreme shredding during the test.

With the weekend’s night race approaching, Hamlin leaned all the way into the unpredictability. “I’m all for Team Chaos this week,” he declared. “I hope we can’t even run 50 laps, I just hope they have enough tires is gonna be my thing.”