CONCORD, N.C. — Who does NASCAR think they are, Formula One?

No, seriously, that was my first thought when the announcement was made on Tuesday afternoon that ‘option tires’ will be available for all teams participating in this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race.

Those tires will be a softer compound than the standard Goodyear tires used during the ’10 Days of NASCAR Thunder’ at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, identified by green Goodyear lettering on the sidewalls of the tires, and one set will be available to teams for use at any point in the 2017 All-Star Race.

At first, I couldn’t come up with how I felt about this.

But the more I thought about it, the more I came to a realization that surprised even me.

This idea (which I’ve seen just as many call ‘crazy’ and cry ‘gimmick’ about as I have support it on social media today) might actually work.

Charlotte Motor Speedway president and general manager Marcus Smith said during Tuesday’s press conference that Goodyear and NASCAR expect the softer tires to be up to four-tenths of a second faster than the standard tires, at least at the start of a run.

The catch is, of course, that the option tires will wear out much quicker and not have the longevity of a standard set.

Regardless, it’s a new strategy play that teams will be able to utilize and it’s one that has worked extremely successfully over the years in Formula One, which utilizes as many as five different tire compounds over the course of a season (hard, medium, soft, supersoft and ultrasoft).

Now, granted, only two or three of those are traditionally in play over the course of a given race event, but the point remains that it forces teams and crews to think outside the box: and often rewards those who do.

That’s why I think the option tire is going to make this year’s All-Star Race so damn interesting, because it’s going to be critical when you put them on and when you use them during the four-stage, 70-lap affair.

If teams elect to wait till the final pit stop (before the 10-lap sprint for $1 million) to use the soft tires, then they have to line up at the rear of a 10-car field for the dash for cash and try to work their way past those who took the primary tires.

But at four tenths a lap quicker? Going from 10th to the win in 10 laps is completely feasible, and not only that, it’d be a hell of a show to watch, too.

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