For anyone who knows the secret to saving tires at Darlington Raceway—please tell Christopher Bell.
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup Series car would welcome any help he can get for Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped track (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
To run 293 laps at The Lady in Black, Goodyear has provided 10 sets of new tires along with the set of scuffs drivers will use in qualifying. An abundance of cautions could place considerable stress on strategic tire decisions.
Bell is running all three NASCAR national races this weekend, and he got his first taste of tire management in Friday night’s CRAFTSMAN Truck Series event, which featured nine cautions and two overtimes.
Bell finished sixth in that event but indicated he wouldn’t have actionable information on the Cup car until Saturday afternoon’s practice.
“We’ll certainly learn more about the strategy piece whenever we get into practice and, like I mentioned before, nobody has any idea, it’s all speculation on what the tire degradation is going to be and what that means for the strategy on Sunday,” Bell said on Saturday morning at Darlington.
“But how do you save tires? I don’t know. I didn’t do it very well last night. That was my Achilles heel, so hopefully I can save tires better today and tomorrow. I’m still looking for that magic answer if anyone else has it.”
