NASCAR seeking options to address lackluster Martinsville race

In an interview Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said several factors played into how the race unfolded but said the sanctioning body would try to determine what “levers to pull” to help improve the on track product.

The Richmond race two weeks ago turned into a tire strategy affair as the lack of cautions (five total, including two stage breaks) and multiple green-flag pit stops left much of the field strung out.

Saturday night at Martinsville turned out to be very similar. There were only four cautions (two for stage breaks), five lead changes and a round of green-flag pit stops – something usually unheard of on the ½-mile track.

Miller’s take on the race echoed those of several drivers after the event saying that it was difficult to point to one overriding factor for the lack of close-quarters racing that would typically produce a lot of “beating and banging.”

“We’ve certainly been in contact with a fairly large cross-section of the drivers, getting their take. We’ve had meeting with Goodyear,” he said. “We have a tire test (at Martinsville) planned for later on in the year to try some new things there.

“The drivers have sort of cited shifting as a potential problem. We’re taking all the input and looking at what levers we may be able to actually pull to improve it the next time we go back.

“It’s awesome to have the events at night. There’s a certain sort of flare to that but the cold temperatures and a cold night is definitely more of a challenge than everyone understands. I think that played into some of it

“We’ll keep getting all the input and make some decisions on next time going back.”

To eliminate the large amount of shifting drivers found themselves doing on the track with the Next Gen car’s new 5-speed, sequential transaxle, a different gear ratio would likely be required, Miller said.

“Even if we got that top gear exactly at the RPM that everybody desires, it was certainly a little bit low, there would probably still be the desire if we got some tires where the pace slowed down to kind of shift later in a run but it wouldn’t be every lap.”