“We didn’t have near as many cautions as some were expecting, and I don’t know if you contribute that to a more experienced field of drivers or the weather,” Powell said. “But I thought we had really, really good racing through the field. Behind the leader always seemed to be a lot of drivers competing for position, and through the field was excellent.”

But the issue is now on preparations for next year. Will the track weather at all? And will Goodyear find a more favorable tire?

Powell said LVMS has cars on the track almost every day of the year with the Richard Petty Driving experience, wear that could help season the surface.

But the drivers are insistent there must be better communication.

“If these guys didn’t bring the right car to the track, their butts would be on the line,” he said, referring to the race teams. “I know Goodyear is working very hard, but we have to bring the right tire. I don’t know how we get there, whether it’s more tire testing or bringing more cars to the track for tire testing, but something needs to be addressed to where we know we have the right tire. The sport is too big to be dealing with last-minute changes.”

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon planned to sit down with Goodyear officials.

“We’ve got to come up with a solution,” he said. “There is no reason for us to show up at tracks and have a white-knuckle experience the whole weekend like we did here. They’ve been doing this too long and they’ve got too smart people, so we’ve got to figure out how not to bring tires like this to the track.”

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