NASCAR Cup and Gander Outdoors Truck Series teams will utilize the same Goodyear Racing tires this weekend at Michigan International Speedway, while the Xfinity Series will have a new set of tires for its road course event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Here’s the tire info for both tracks:
CUP/TRUCKS – Michigan
There are several tracks on the NASCAR circuit that present a similar challenge – a relatively smooth track surface that does not wear tires.
Goodyear has aligned several of these tracks – Texas, Kentucky and Michigan – with its tire set-up. At these tracks, Goodyear formulates its tread compounds to aid in the wearing process.
Consolidating to this same tire combination at all three of these tracks also gives teams the advantage of working from an established notebook.
“We have several tracks that we go to that have been resurfaced over the past handful of years, and the challenge that we face at Michigan and those others is that tires don’t wear much,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “With the goal of introducing more tire wear on these ‘smoother’ surfaces, we held a test at Texas last summer.
“We came out of that with some tread compounds that accomplish that and have brought this week’s tire set-up to Texas, Kentucky and Michigan this season.
“Tire wear is a good thing in racing because when a tire sheds rubber it dissipates heat and runs cooler and at a more optimum grip level. The other benefit to the teams when we run the same tire combination at multiple tracks is that they can work from notes they have built up over the course of those other races and understand how it works on these similar tracks.”
Tire info: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limit: Cup: 3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 8 sets for the race; (7 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying or practice); Truck: 4 sets for the event.
Tire Codes: Left-side -- D-4798; Right-side -- D-4796.
Tire Circumference: Left-side -- 2,227 mm (87.68 in.); Right-side -- 2,251 mm (88.62 in.).
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front -- 22 psi; Left Rear – 22 psi; Right Front -- 54 psi; Right Rear -- 50 psi.
NOTES: This is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that Cup teams ran at Michigan in June. For the Trucks, compared to what was run at Michigan last season, this right-side tire moves from a multi-zone tread to a single-zone, while this left-side tire features both a construction update and compound change to introduce more wear. Teams in both series also ran this same tire set-up at Texas and Kentucky earlier this season. … As on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Michigan. … Air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
XFINITY SERIES -- Mid-Ohio
Tire info: Goodyear Eagle Road Course Radials
Set limits: 6 sets for the event.
Tire Code: D-4920 (same on all four tire positions).
Tire Circumference: 88.66 in. (2,252 mm).
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front -- 22 psi; Right Front -- 20 psi; Left Rear -- 17 psi; Right Rear -- 17 psi.
NOTES: New tire debuts for Xfinity teams at Mid-Ohio. Cars will run the same tire code on all four corners of the car, the first time Xfinity teams have run this tire code. … Compared to last year’s race at Mid-Ohio, this tire features the same tread compound with a construction update. … Xfinity teams are also scheduled to run this tire code again at Road America in two weeks. … As on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Mid-Ohio.
Wet Weather Tires: White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its wet weather radials for use at Mid-Ohio, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant such. Teams are allowed up to four sets of “wets” for the event. The last time a “wet” tire was run by Xfinity teams was at Watkins Glen in 2018; they were also run at Mid-Ohio as recently as 2016. … One change from Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires: the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.
