AUSTIN, Texas — "Make those tires last" will be a rallying cry for Cup Series drivers as they compete at Circuit of the Americas for the first time this season. Yet, this is easier said than done, as many can attest.
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Those who struggle with this concept often fade late in the long runs. Those who excel at saving tires put themselves in contention for the win. This will only be emphasized by the move to the 750-horsepower package.
"Probably gives (Shane van Gisbergen) more of an advantage," AJ Allmendinger said while laughing. "I mean, it's a decent-sized gap of horsepower from what we had to what we have now, but it's not massive.
"But I definitely think if you're burning the rear tires off, it's going to make it worse, or you're just going to have to really be gentle with the throttle."
Gently working the throttle is something that many drivers grew up doing. Van Gisbergen has shown his mastery of this while winning five consecutive road course races. Denny Hamlin has done so while winning at numerous oval tracks where tire wear is a huge factor.
Other drivers aren't as accustomed to this. Riley Herbst particularly indicated that he has little experience saving his tires to this level.
Riley Herbst, like some other drivers, wishes that Circuit of the Americas didn't need tire packs. He would prefer having grass or other hazards like at Watkins Glen.
Still, he thinks the tire packs are a smart move by #NASCAR.
That explanation and other comments are in the… pic.twitter.com/KueRTysOq4— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) February 28, 2026
So how does a driver with little tire-saving experience build up this skillset? The answer actually depends on who you ask. Some say to look at the available technical data. Others say to take a trial-and-error approach.
"You can do things," Hamlin said in response to a question from FanBuzz. "There's things in the simulator you can work on to work on your craft on that stuff. There's so much data out there nowadays. There's things you can look at to kinda change.
"It is a little different. You used to not really worry about tires wearing out on the road courses, and NASCAR and Goodyear are making a really good push to get us softer tires. We're seeing multi-second falloff."
Studying the data is a key part of the development process, especially in an era of NASCAR where young drivers do not have many opportunities to test before they go racing.
It's not like they can just hop into a Cup Series car and just complete hundreds of laps when the points don't matter.
"You just keep trying to find that limit," Michael McDowell said. "You keep trying to push yourself without pushing the tire. That's the hard part.
"Like you're pushing yourself from: come off the brake, pick up the gas a little sooner, just get right to that limit without over slipping that limit. So you just got to keep working. It's just like anything else, you know, you never arrive."
Michael McDowell didn't feel major differences between 2025 and 2026 while completing practice and qualifying at Circuit of the Americas, but he anticipates tire wear will be a big factor tomorrow.
Also, he and his family are going all out with Tecovas gear tonight. pic.twitter.com/x2Ot0DAjrL— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) February 28, 2026
Chase Briscoe agrees that they just have to go out and learn on the fly. Once they make the mistake in the heat of the race, they will learn how to back off in the future. It just may take some time.
Although it certainly helps if a champion can just step in and provide some guidance.
"For me, I'm still not very good at it, but, but Tony (Stewart) actually helped me a lot," Briscoe said. "Just in the fact that... think of your tire as a battery, right? Once that battery dies, you're not getting it back, and your tire started at 100% battery.
"And every time you slide it or do something, you're losing battery life. And just having that visual I feel like, every time I slip it, I'm just losing percentage of what I have left. And honestly, that's kind of helped me just put things into perspective. Yeah, I'm not still very good at it. I still run out of batteries a lot."
