Goodyear will have a different tire for Cup teams for next month’s Charlotte Roval playoff race.
Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing, told NBC Sports on Friday of the change but noted that the tire that will be used is similar to the previous tire.
Stucker said the change was made after seeing heat-related issues with the tires during the July 10 and 17 organizational tests.
“Just evidence of a little bit too soft, a little bit too grippy for the setup,” Stucker said. “We feel the guys are probably going to be faster when they get back there in (September), they’re going to work on the car. It always happens once you go from a test, guys get more speed.”
Teams at the July 10 test ran the tire that now will not be used for the race. Some teams changed to the new race tire at the July 17 test.
Stucker said the new race tire has a “slight formulation change in the tread compound. The construction is identical” to what the tires teams ran at the July 10 test.
Joey Logano‘s team and Clint Bowyer‘s team each switched to the alternate tire – what is now the new race tire – at the July 17 test.
“Drove about the same to me,” Logano told NBC Sports of the alternate tire at the test. “Mainly, the control tire, whatever you want to call it, the normal tire, has some chunking problems, chunks coming out of both front and rears. Some lasted 15 laps, some lasted three laps. Just kind of random how that was. … I don’t know what’s different. I don’t know the technical part of what’s different, I just know it drove pretty similar and we didn’t have any issues with that tire. Good change.”
After the July 17 test, Goodyear stated that it would reassess its tire selection.
Stucker said the that tire teams will use at for the Charlotte road course race are not used anywhere else on the circuit. Stucker also said the tire will be used by Cup and Xfinity teams that weekend. The Xfinity Series races on the Charlotte Roval on Sept. 29 on NBCSN. The Cup series races on the Roval on Sept. 30 on NBC.
