BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway featured a tire that wore much faster than expected, something that disrupted what many expected to be a standard event. But don't expect that to happen during Saturday's elimination race.
Goodyear brought the same tire to Bristol for the Round of 16 elimination race that it used during the wild spring race featuring a track record 54 lead changes. The result was not the same, at least during an extended 45-minute practice session at the Tennessee track.
"I saw what every other Bristol race has ever looked like since I started racing stock cars," Austin Cindric told AltDriver after completing 101 laps on Friday afternoon.
The Team Penske driver was not the only Cup Series regular who saw less falloff than expected. Multiple indicated that Saturday's race will be more straightforward than the spring event that Denny Hamlin won after saving his tires.
This was a race where veterans with experience conserving tires excelled. As evidence of this, Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski both finished top three while relying on decades of experience.
"I think it's back to where it was a year ago," Alex Bowman said after winning the pole. "I didn't really see any unusual wear. They don't fall off that much. So definitely curious as to what the variable is there, right? I think there's a lot of smart people that will figure out what that variable is -- between the tests here, the spring race, and everything, with the same stuff causing different results.
"Yeah, I think we're in for Bristol a year ago, more than Bristol from the spring. Unless all the rubber comes up off the track overnight for whatever reason, I think that would create the spring race again. But barring that happening, I think it'll be kind of normal Bristol again."
Not that the drivers would complain about normal Bristol, especially with the importance of Saturday night's race.
This is not a simple spring race at the Last Great Colosseum. No, it is an elimination race where every spot matters and chaos lurks around every turn. A playoff driver could have one of the best cars in the field only to get collected in an incident started by someone else.
This is something that Xfinity Series driver Justin Allgaier dealt with Friday night at Bristol. He had the lead in the regular-season finale, but he sustained damage after two lapped cars got together. One of them ripped the rear bumper off Allgaier's No. 7 Chevrolet and forced the JR Motorsports driver to make an unscheduled pit stop.
Having a standard Bristol race will help the teams and drivers as they prepare for the pivotal elimination race. They won't have to worry about tires as much; they will just have to worry about the standard Bristol chaos.
"I don't know what changed, but the track looked completely different and the tires aren't wearing," Joey Logano said.
"Not what most of us expected. It threw us all for a loop again. It's kind of like what it was last fall here so we kind of know what the race will play out like at this point."