Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

HAMPTON, Ga. — Optimism abounds for NASCAR’s lower downforce rules package, which makes its 2016 debut in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

If all goes according to plan, taking downforce off the cars should make them more difficult to drive and increase passing opportunities while providing for a more entertaining race.

But the rules package can’t succeed alone. It will go hand-in-hand with perhaps the most crucial and underrated element in auto racing: the tires.

“It’s like the baking soda to our cake,” Brad Keselowski said of tire wear. “Too much or too little, and it doesn’t rise or it turns out tasting like crap.”

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In this case, it’s Goodyear providing the baking soda — and the manufacturer is hoping what it terms a “significant change” to the tires will give the drivers what they want this season.

Recent years saw the cars put a tremendous amount of load on the tires, which created a higher risk for failure. And drivers making angry comments over tire blowouts or TV showing replays of crashes caused by flat tires are bad for Goodyear’s business.

So historically, Goodyear has erred on the side of durability to avoid negative headlines.

But at times, that has added to the lack of exciting racing. When tires don’t wear out during the course of a race, it means track position is more important because there’s not as much passing and not as much strategy.

Now that there’s less downforce, however, Goodyear has more flexibility to work with a softer tire compound.

“The aerodynamics just overpowered everything on the race cars so much, and I think that’s what everybody wanted to get away from,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We’re not seeing the loads we would have seen in the old package, so it definitely gives us more room to operate.”

That could be a very good thing for NASCAR, its drivers and its fans. If Goodyear isn’t forced into a box and can create a tire that wears out during the course of a fuel run, everyone wins.

It all starts with Atlanta Motor Speedway, which could have the best tire situation of the season.

“This is the one if you could model the way you’d like a tire to be … you want them like this,” Carl Edwards said. “After a lap, the tire feels different. After five laps, it’s way different.

“This race, I think it’s going to be all over the place. Like Kyle Busch says, ‘It’s going to be nuts,’ and you’re just going to be sliding all over.”

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The bigger question might come after this week, when NASCAR travels to tracks such as Las Vegas Motor Speedway, another 1.5-mile track but with a much less abrasive surface.

The industry is crossing its fingers. There are so many benefits, not the least of which includes an opportunity for more passing as drivers who race too aggressively after the restart get left in the dust as their tires wear quicker.

And then there’s the strategy element.

“You want the tire to give up because it just adds another layer to the race,” Edwards said. “I mean, do you pit or not? You can just stay out until you run out of fuel and stay in front of the guys regardless of whether they have new tires or not.”

Goodyear has been working on a tire for the lower downforce package since October 2014, and so far it’s had only one race to prove itself (last September at Darlington Raceway).

“From our perspective, we want to see problem-free racing and something the guys can manage,” Stucker said.

Like everyone else in NASCAR, Goodyear is anxious to see if its baking soda can help make a tasty cake.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

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