Kyle Busch, the driver of the #18 Skittles Toyota, gets into his car during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 14, 2018, in Bristol, Tennessee. Photo – Robert Laberge/Getty Images

BRISTOL, Tenn. – In Friday’s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch couldn’t find a familiar feel.

“Here today, for some reason, the traction compound (applied in the lower lane) doesn’t feel anything like I remember it from last fall,” said Busch, whose victory last Augusta made him a six-time winner at the track. “It’s just not quite as grippy as I remember it being. For some reason, it’s just really easy to slip out of it with the back or the front and it’s really slick up off the corner.”

Busch felt the new right-side tire supplied by Goodyear might have a lot to do with the unfamiliar feel. The tread compound is the same, but the construction differs from that of last year’s tire.

“Definitely there’s a difference with the new right-side tire,” Busch said. “That might be the feeling that I’m feeling today that’s just different. Like I mentioned earlier, that it could be the substance (traction compound) that feels different, but it might be the right-side tire that’s different.

“There’s something that’s just not a familiar feeling. The tire could be some of that.”

Erik Jones, Busch’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, is happy with the new tire—and should be. He tested for Goodyear at Bristol in September.

“Fortunately, they picked one of the tires we tested,” Jones said. “So I was able to kind of get a leg up on some of the other guys here and know what that tire was going to feel like and have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to do in the long run.

“I think we made a 50 or 60 lap run on it, so I have a pretty good idea.”