As Kyle Larson rode around under caution, already pinned a lap down as a heavy-tire-wear race at Bristol Motor Speedway suddenly became evident, he and crew chief Cliff Daniels commiserated about how the night was unfolding.

“Is this a good race?” Daniels asked Larson, with the tone of someone who clearly did not think so.

“Gluck probably thinks so,” an unamused Larson said.

Well, since you brought it up, Kyle…

Listen, here’s the thing: I completely get why Larson and Daniels — as well as any other driver who wants to go to one of NASCAR’s iconic short tracks and race hard — would not be pleased at all with a tire-management race. These teams don’t spend their lives searching for every ounce of speed just to show up and be handcuffed, unable to run all-out for even a few laps at a time.

But objectively, what we saw Saturday night was much more entertaining than the last two Bristol races, which had a combined 12 lead changes and saw Larson lead 87 percent of the laps.

That’s nothing against Larson or any other driver who dominates, but the lack of lead changes at what was once the hottest venue in NASCAR has been alarming. The spring Bristol race got 20.1 percent in my “Was it a good race?” poll — the lowest Bristol race (out of 20) and the lowest race of this season so far.

The previous two Bristol races were filled with all the usual complaints about short tracks in the Next Gen Era: The car is not conducive to racing on those types of circuits, drivers get stuck and can’t pass while all running the same speed and Goodyear needs to bring softer tires that wear out faster to make for a better show.

So … that’s exactly what Goodyear did! The new right-side tire was the softest ever used at a Bristol race, and while the heavy wear was a surprise based on practice (which saw no tire issues), this was what many fans had been hoping to see as a bandage for this car.

“The industry has asked for this,” Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear’s global race tire operations manager, told the USA Network broadcast. “We’ve got the best drivers, the best crew chiefs. We’re going to ask them to manage it. And we’re delivering on exactly what we were asked to do.”

Look, was it perfect? Probably not. It might be better next time if the teams have more confidence they’re in for a high-wear race (Adam Stevens, crew chief for race-winner Christopher Bell, said he would have “bet my house” it would be a normal Bristol event).

But with 36 lead changes and drivers colliding while fighting for the bottom groove, like how it used to be at old, classic Bristol? That’s a heck of a lot better than the alternative.

Drivers had to choose between racing hard and conserving their tires. Teams had to guess the right time to make pit stops and use their previous rubber before it ran out. It was strategy. It was fun to watch them figure it out on the fly.

So yes, I enjoyed it. I respect why others didn’t, especially some of those behind the wheel, but I’d love to see this type of Bristol race again in the future.

NASCAR Bristol tires

Tire wear was once again the story at Bristol — to the dismay of many and joy of at least the writer. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)First-round dud

Four drivers and teams laid one of the all-time collective eggs in the process of getting eliminated in Round 1. Josh Berry, Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman combined for an average finish of 27.5 and one top-15 finish — making one of the lowest bars ever to advance on points (Austin Cindric went 12th-19th-30th and is in Round 2).

Berry, who won his way into the playoffs with a victory in the Las Vegas spring race, entered the final 10 races as a popular pick for an early exit. But no one could have imagined three last-place finishes in a row — perhaps the racing equivalent of baseball’s “golden sombrero,” when a batter goes 0-4 with four strikeouts in a game — after he immediately wrecked at Darlington, had an early crash at Gateway and had his car catch fire in Stage 1 at Bristol.

Van Gisbergen, who won four road course races and sparked talk of a Round 3 appearance if he survived the initial round and won at the Charlotte Roval, was rapidly ousted as the No. 6 seed. His team badly missed the setup at Darlington, then he finished 25th at Gateway and 26th at Bristol after saying he needed more experience with managing the tires.

Dillon would have had a chance to advance, but early tire problems at Bristol doomed his night, and he missed the cutoff by 14 points. And Bowman’s two horrible pit stops at Darlington and Gateway, which prompted a pit crew swap with Carson Hocevar before Bristol, easily accounted for the 10 points that were the difference in his elimination.

In general, that kind of joint performance from four playoff drivers is exactly the sort of thing that fuels critics of the “win and you’re in” system. All year long, there were storylines about the bubble and who was going to win their way into the playoffs, only for some of those drivers to be immediately eliminated without even a hint of contention.

Meanwhile, Chris Buescher — who finished 10th in the regular-season standings and would have made the playoffs on points had there been one less winner from below the cutoff line — went 10th-ninth-11th in Round 1 to score the eighth-most points of any driver (more than all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers, for example).

So is NASCAR better off having a competitive driver like Buescher in the field to determine its championship, or “easy outs” in Round 1? Sure, win-and-in provides some crazy storylines like Berry and Dillon — but what does it ultimately matter if they have zero impact on the playoffs themselves?

Alex Bowman

Alex Bowman (No. 48) was among the eliminated drivers who had an especially rough showing over the first three playoff races. (Randy Sartin / Imagn Images)Take five (or 137)

Saturday night’s astounding 137 caution laps were a record in NASCAR’s Modern Era (1972 to present) for not just Bristol, but any race. Given that caution laps take just over 50 seconds to complete, that means more than two hours of the race (which clocked in at three hours and 48 minutes) were run under the yellow flag.

That’s not the best viewing experience, obviously. But before you blame the tires or even the number of cautions, let’s pump the brakes for a second.

Yes, there were 14 yellow flags, but that was far from a Bristol record. Look at these other Bristol races with more caution flags and compare the number of caution laps to Saturday night’s 137:

• 1989 spring race: 20 cautions, 98 caution laps

• 1997 spring race: 20 cautions, 132 caution laps

• 2003 night race: 20 cautions, 119 caution laps

• 2016 spring race: 15 cautions, 102 caution laps

• 2020 spring race: 17 cautions, 102 caution laps

Now you might be wondering: Why nitpick over 30-something extra caution laps in a 500-lap race? Because that’s essentially another half hour of watching cars roll around the track at 35 mph.

Surely, NASCAR and the fans are on the same page here — everyone wants to see as many green-flag laps as possible. But for what it’s worth, NASCAR indicated it was not intentionally adding extra caution laps to help with tire wear.

So if that’s the case, the question is: What happened to add so many laps to the caution periods, and how can officials be more efficient getting the race back to green next time?

Championship 4cast

Each week during the playoffs, we’re taking a look at the current projections to advance to NASCAR’s championship race at Phoenix in November.

1. Chase Briscoe (last week: 1; pre-playoffs: 4). Briscoe overcame the worst playoff driver qualifying position (31st) to lead the second-most laps of the night (127) and finished ninth. His finishes for Round 1 were 1-2-9. We’ll leave him in the top spot for now.

2. Denny Hamlin (last week: 2; pre-playoffs: 3). Hamlin only led three laps while his JGR teammates led 340, but he enters Round 2 as the points leader (+26 to the cutoff line) and will be one of the favorites in each of the next two races before the Roval.

3. Ryan Blaney (last week: 3; pre-playoffs: 2). While we’re a bit shaky on Team Penske as a whole compared to the strength of JGR, Blaney still has enough speed to be a major championship threat if he makes it to the Championship 4 — and after Round 1, we still have him slated to do so.

4. Christopher Bell (last week: honorable mention; pre-playoffs: not ranked). Before the playoffs, our last Championship 4 slot came down to Briscoe or Bell; we chose Briscoe. But now that Bell has won again for the first time since March and heads to a track which suits him extremely well, he and his No. 20 team could get their mojo back just in time for a championship run.

Honorable mention: Kyle Larson, William Byron, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick.

(Top photo of Kyle Larson’s team examining tires during Saturday night’s race: Jeffrey Vest / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)