ATYL: Tire Trouble Is The Best Thing To Happen To Gen 7 Short Track Racing

Leaving practice and qualifying, we had an idea of what Sunday’s race might bring. But, did any of us expect this?

For the first time since 2020, NASCAR’s spring Bristol race returned to the track’s traditional concrete surface. Though the series held testing for the NextGen cars at the track, the product fans could expect to see on race day was still in question.

Flash forward to this weekend where practice and qualifying left everyone confused. With the addition of resin – rather than the previously used PJ1 – around the bottom of the half-mile oval, track conditions changed quickly and drastically.

Great practice runs would turn to poor qualifying efforts for many, like Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain,as they failed to keep up with the changing conditions. After a rather bizarre Saturday of qualifying, no one really knew what they had going into the Food City 500.

Teams and fans quickly discovered this race would revolve around tire management after several drivers pressed their luck in Stages 1 and 2. This “old-school” race saw the veterans rise to the occasion, while bringing up a larger discussion regarding the tire Goodyear brought to the track that refused to lay rubber on the track other than in marble form.

Join Taylor Kitchen and special guest, Ben Branscum, from the track as they discuss all the action from Bristol!

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Taylor Kitchen

Taylor Kitchen found her passion for motorsports after watching a NASCAR Xfinity Series race with her grandma in 2016. The following year, she would attend her first race at Kentucky Speedway. The smell of the gas and roar of the engines filling her ears was enough to solidify her love of the sport. She spent the next few years working her way into the NASCAR online community and researching as much as she could to gain a vast knowledge of the sport. However, something was bothering her. At the time, Taylor struggled to find content within the space that was female-led and came from the perspective of a new fan. This inspired her to create her own media outlet, “Above The Yellow Line” in 2021. On this platform, Taylor writes, films, edits, and markets high-quality videos discussing the latest news and events from the sport. In April of 2022, her company partnered with the prominent NASCAR media outlet TobyChristie.com to provide them social media content and to report on location during select race weekends. Since then, Taylor has been able to help build TobyChristie.com's YouTube audience to well over four thousand subscribers and continues to help expand the company's social reach with her team. 2022 marked a new era for the brand as Taylor expanded ATYL’s capabilities to help various drivers with their communications, public relations, digital media, and marketing. In June of that year, she was hired by ARCA Series Champion, Austin Theriault to work for his driver development program, "AT Racing Development". As the organization's Director of Digital Marketing and Media, she produces and directs her clients tailor-made social media strategies. She also takes part in marketing efforts for her drivers. In May of 2023, Austin Theriault of AT Racing Development partnered with Team Hornaday Development and brought Taylor to the team as their Communications Manager. Working with Ron and Candice Hornaday, Taylor helps direct their drivers social media strategy and PR efforts. She also partakes in company and driver marketing and recruiting efforts