Goodyear’s radical tire change Causes NASCAR drivers Panic
As the NASCAR Cup Series finals enter the second round of a three-race 16-round series at Watkins Glen International, drivers are getting excited as Goodyear introduces a different type of tire. This weekend the competition burned Joey Logano’s ankle in a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, thus guaranteeing him a 12-rounder.
Watkins Glen International, a 2.45-mile road course in New York, has favored Hendrick Motorsports in the past, having dominated the seven-turn format for the past five events.
However, the race has changed a lot this year thanks to these new tire sets. Issues related to NASCAR on short tracks and road courses led to aerodynamic changes to the new car generation from 2022, as the issues could not be resolved to continue he.
To alleviate these concerns, NASCAR asked Goodyear to create a softer tire compound that would provide more tire wear during the race. The new tires were tested for the first time at Bristol Motor Speedway this spring, and the results were positive. Goodyear Racing Director Greg Stocker gave a good overview of the changes:
“While our work continues to introduce more drops, we tested at Watkins Glen in June and we have a new tire that will achieve this goal. We should see three seconds of drop for each frame during run time. That, of course, can mean more passing throughout the race.”
The softer tire compound, which was tested this past June at Watkins Glen, is expected to create approximately three seconds of fall-off per lap, impacting strategies and potentially increasing passing opportunities during the race. This has left drivers feeling anxious about the ramifications of their race tactics.
NASCAR driver Christopher Bell has questions:
If there is tire [degradation], which we’re expecting there to be, then yes, there will be a huge incentive to not jump the stage to have fresh tires at the start of the next stage. On the same breath, the road courses and having that yellow flag – the stage breaks – it really entices a lot of different strategy calls.”
Drivers who have previously opted to skip stage-end pitting for better track positions will need to rethink their approach given the anticipated tire degradation. This shift is anticipated to make the race more interesting, as Denny Hamlin explained:
“The driver plays a huge role in [managing tires], so certainly I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s a race that’s going to be unlike any road course we’ve seen.”
