NASCAR's tire options a resounding success at Richmond

Lost in the shuffle of Sunday night's cartoonish (for lack of a better word) finish in the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway was that the story of the race — up until the last lap — was the debut of NASCAR's tire options.

In order to add an extra strategical wrench into the action, NASCAR provided each team with two sets of softer "option" tires that they could use at any point during the race. This was first tried during the exhibition All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro with little success, but at Richmond, a track with much greater tire wear, it made things quite interesting.

No driver started the race on the option tires, but under the first caution, Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell opted to be first lab rats. It was a successful move for both drivers, as Suarez went from the middle of the pack to the lead in the blink of an eye while McDowell went from the back of the field to the top 10.

However, the risk involved in using the option tires is that while they were much faster at the start of a run, they also wore out much more significantly later in runs. The "crossover point" in which the regular tires became more advantageous was after roughly 40 laps , but given that the field is much more spread out by that point in the run, it's a risk that was very much worth it.

Both Suarez and McDowell were able to largely maintain their track position the rest of the way, with Suarez leading a career-high 93 laps and finishing 10th while McDowell ended up 15th. Other drivers saved their two sets of option tires for later in the going, and most of the field still had one remaining for the mad dash on the final restart with two laps to go.

All in all, it was a successful move and one that it's unfortunate was overshadowed by Sunday night's finish. NASCAR should consider doing this again in future races on similar shorter and flatter tracks, such as Martinsville and perhaps even the season finale at Phoenix.