• Sat. Nov 23rd, 2024

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Sad: Goodyear’s  radical tire change Causes NASCAR  drivers Panic

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.”

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