Goodyear Fast Facts — All-Star – Speedway Digest – Home for NASCAR News

NASCAR Cup Series – All-Star Race
North Wilkesboro Speedway (0.625-mile oval) – North Wilkesboro, N.C.
Fast Facts for May 17-19, 2024

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials

Set limits: All-Star teams — 3 sets of Primes & 2 sets of Options for practice/qualifying/heats;
Open teams — 3 sets of Primes & 2 sets of Options for practice/qualifying/Open;
All-Star race: 2 two sets of Primes & 2 sets of Options

Tire Codes: Prime — Left-side — D-5208; Right-side — D-5220;
Option — Left-side — D-5224; Right-side — D-5226

Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,249 mm (88.54 in.); Right-side — 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 12 psi; Left Rear — 12 psi;
Right Front — 26 psi; Right Rear — 24 psi

Storyline – Option tire gives Cup teams a Prime chance for strategy in All-Star race: At this week’s NASCAR Cup Series All-Star event at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Goodyear Racing is bringing both a “Prime” and an “Option” tire for teams to run. The Option tire has the same construction as the Prime tire, but will feature the same tread compound that Goodyear uses on its wet weather tire for Cup competition, just with a “slick” tread and no tread pattern. The Option tread compound will provide teams with more grip but wear quicker, thus leading to more lap-time fall-off and tire management becoming a bigger factor for drivers. While Cup teams will have two sets of Option tires for all on-track sessions leading up to the main event (along with three sets of Prime tires), they will have an additional two sets of Options (along with two sets of Primes) for the 200-lap All-Star race itself.
“We tested at North Wilkesboro in March because of the repave since last year’s All-Star race, so we knew we’d have a new tire set-up for this year,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of Racing. “During the test, we evaluated a set-up that utilized a right-side tire with the tread compound we use on our current wet weather tire. That set-up proved to be three-tenths-of-a-second faster over our control set-up. In conversations with NASCAR, bringing an ‘Option’ tire to the All-Star race became a possibility and we had this data point to work from. With the adjustment to the wet weather compound on both the right- and left-side we expect the Option set-up to be maybe four- to five-tenths quicker than the Prime set-up, which is quite significant on a five-eighths-mile track. Now, with that extra grip and speed comes the fact that the Option tire will fall off more quickly, making tire management an important factor when those tires are on the car. Teams will have two sets of Options for practice through the heat races, so they will have a good idea of what that looks like and be able to make a decision on when to best utilize their second set of Options during the All-Star race. All-in-all, we feel bringing the Option tire can enhance this event, and may provide some additional direction as we continue to work on the Cup short track package.”

Notes – New (Prime) Cup tire set-up for repaved North Wilkesboro: Being on the 18-inch bead diameter tire, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Craftsman Truck Series at North Wilkesboro this week . . . all four tire codes to be run by Cup teams at North Wilkesboro this weekend – the left-side and right-side in the Prime set-up and the left-side and right-side in the Option set-up – are new to the Goodyear tire lineup . . . Goodyear held a tire test at North Wilkesboro with Cup cars on March 13-14 . . . teams participating in that test were the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford with Joey Logano, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with William Byron and No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with Ty Gibbs . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars do not run inner liners in any of their tires.

Which tire is which? – Fans can follow along with tire choices based on color of sidewall lettering (see attached): To differentiate all the tires NASCAR Cup teams have available to them at this week’s All-Star event, the Prime tire will carry the standard yellow “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering, while the Option tire will feature red letters. As on all short tracks and road courses, Goodyear will also have white-lettered wet weather tires on hand.

Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear to bring wet weather tires to North Wilkesboro: Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radial tires to North Wilkesboro for the NASCAR Cup cars, should NASCAR determine that conditions warrant . . . Cup teams will have a maximum of 4 sets of wet weather tires for the event . . . NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at Richmond on April, and also ran them during the 2023 All-Star event at North Wilkesboro . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus 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 on the Prime tire or the red on the Option tire.

GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — Race No. 10 — 250 laps / 156 miles
North Wilkesboro Speedway (0.625-mile oval) – North Wilkesboro, N.C.
Fast Facts for May 17-18, 2024

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials

Set limits: Truck: 5 sets for the event

Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6114; Right-side — D-6116

Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,218 mm (87.32 in.); Right-side — 2,244 mm (88.35 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 12 psi; Left Rear — 12 psi;
Right Front — 28 psi; Right Rear — 26 psi

Notes – Trucks return to North Wilkesboro on 2023 tire set-up: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at North Wilkesboro this weekend . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that Truck teams ran at North Wilkesboro last season . . . this tire set-up was confirmed at a Goodyear tire test at North Wilkesboro on March 12 . . . Truck Series drivers participating in that test were Christian Eckes, Cory Heim and Ben Rhodes . . . as on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, Truck teams will not run inner liners in their tires at North Wilkesboro.

Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear to bring wet weather tires to North Wilkesboro: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radial tires to North Wilkesboro for the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks, should NASCAR determine that conditions warrant . . . Truck teams will have 3 sets of wets available for the event . . . the Trucks ran this wet weather tire in competition at both the Martinsville and North Wilkesboro ovals last season . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus 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.

Goodyear Racing PR