“The tires held up really really well today,” Keselowski said. “I\u2019m surprised by that but we will see tomorrow. Time will tell. It will be a different test as it gets into the night, more cars on the track at one time, our weekly science experiment continues.”<\/p>\n
Keselowski articulated it like that because NASCAR and Goodyear have repeatedly been trying to replicate the 2024 spring race that corded tires within 40 laps and got them closer to 200 and then 150 but these do not seem to fade much at all.<\/p>\n
This is despite Goodyear bringing three different combinations over four races at Thunder Valley during that time.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, another surprise happened in the form of who won the pole for the Bristol Night Race in the first place, with AJ Allmendinger scoring his first pole in a decade and first on an oval.<\/a><\/p>\n Go figure. \u00a0<\/p>\n “Yeah, I know it\u2019s Friday night qualifying and at the end of the day, that doesn\u2019t pay any points or money, but it\u2019s small victories like this for our race team that\u2019s continually trying to grow,” Allmendinger said. “I\u2019ve been super proud of all the men and women at Kaulig Racing<\/a> this year. It\u2019s tough in the Cup Series. Sometimes the results don\u2019t show speed that you\u2019re bringing to the racetrack and at a racetrack maybe that we ran 28th at last year, we run 15th this year, things like that.<\/p>\n “So, yeah, days like today are enjoyable and gives me confidence because I feel like I can still do it. And at the end of the day, anybody that knows me knows I\u2019m by far the hardest on myself and I\u2019m always going to be like that. That\u2019s never going to change. So, days like today are important to me, as well, because it proves that I can be here.”<\/p>\n AJ Allmendinger, Kaulig Racing Chevrolet<\/p>\n Photo by: Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Allmendinger also echoed the sentiment that tires were not fading in practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe ran 60 laps today. They weren\u2019t all consecutive. We made a couple of changes to make the car better. That\u2019s what gave me confidence going into qualifying. Our last change, I felt like we had a lot of speed.<\/p>\n “There is a little bit of fall off, but at least my car was good enough, so it never felt like there was a cliff there of the tires all of a sudden going to hit that cliff and basically unravel or start really falling off. Looking at the tires, they had wear on them, but they weren\u2019t extreme.”<\/p>\n It\u2019s like one of those things \u2014 in the spring here, we ran 25 laps and it looked like the tires were falling apart. Then we ran 160 on them in the race. So, I\u2019m not sure what to expect. I just think, like anything, if you\u2019ve got a good balance, you can manage the tires.\u201d<\/p>\n But really, it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that the tires didn\u2019t fade. It\u2019s been warm enough during the day for the track to take rubber and there will be three different races on the track before the Cup race even takes the green flag.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ll race whatever”<\/p>\n The massive tire cording race was a result of temperatures below 60, which seems to be the threshold in which the rubber does not seep into porous surface, and thus Austin Cindric<\/a> wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cNot at all, no,\u201d Cindric said. \u201cThe temperature in the track, I think tomorrow night will be interesting if it gets really cold out, but, overall, not really.\u00a0The pace increases and I\u2019d say that\u2019s probably it from today.\u00a0I think there might be some fall off towards the end of the stints, but nothing like we had here last spring, I don\u2019t think.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"AJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/aj-allmendinger-kaulig-racing-.jpg\")
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