What are marbles and why do NASCAR drivers try to avoid them?
Nobody really knows who in NASCAR first coined the term marbles, but it’s a good bet whoever did so probably felt as if he’d just run over some during a race. If you’ve ever watched a NASACAR race and heard broadcasters talk about a driver running over some marbles, they aren’t talking about the small glass spheres children used to play with during the 1950s. What they’re referring to are the small bits of rubber that come off tires and accumulate near the outside wall of a racetrack. On oval tracks in NASCAR’s three premier circuits, the Craftsman Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series, walls act as barriers to keep these pieces of rubber from leaving the racing surface. Several factors make some tracks worse than others, but the effect remains the same: A car driving through the marbles slips and slides all over the place. You’d think rubber on rubber would be a good thing. After all, more rubber means more traction, right? Wrong. Goodyear Racing Eagles, the tires used exclusively i
