Goodyear Fast Facts — Martinsville

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NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 9 – 400 laps / 210.4 miles

Martinsville Speedway (0.526-mile oval) – Martinsville, Va.

Fast Facts for April 15-16, 2023

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Short Track Radials

Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 8 sets for the race

     (7 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)

Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5176; Right-side — D-5178

Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,249 mm (88.54 in.); Right-side — 2,278 mm (89.69 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 10 psi; Left Rear — 12 psi;

     Right Front — 22 psi; Right Rear — 22 psi

Storyline – Goodyear comes up with a concrete solution for Martinsville: Martinsville Speedway places high physical demands on tires, with a tight turning radius and very little banking, leading to hard braking into the corners and hard acceleration off.  Goodyear’s designs its tire constructions to handle such conditions, with a tire combination that is unique to the half-mile track.  The other factor is the concrete corners and laying rubber on that surface.  Goodyear tested at Martinsville last June and made a compound change for the fall race, designed to help lay rubber on the concrete in all weather conditions.  Ambient temperatures are expected to be in the 70s this weekend, which is very mild for Southern Virginia.  Rubbering in the track creates multiple lanes, leading to more side-by-side racing and passing throughout the field.

     “The times of the year that we race at Martinsville often finds us in cooler temperatures,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing.  “Cooler ambient and track temperatures make it more difficult to put rubber down on the concrete corners, so we have worked very hard over the years to design our tread compounds to accomplish that.  We tested Martinsville after the first race there last year and modified our tread compounds, taking another step toward making this tire set-up more weatherproof.”

Notes – Cup teams on fall ’22 tire set-up at Martinsville: Being on a 18-inch bead diameter tire, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity and Truck Series at Martinsville this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that Cup teams ran at this track last October . . . Martinsville is the only track at which either of these two tire codes will be run . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires in 2023.

Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear bringing wet weather tires to Martinsville: Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radial tires to Martinsville for the NASCAR Cup cars, should NASCAR determine that conditions warrant . . . Goodyear tested its 18-inch bead diameter wet weather tire at Martinsville in June 2022, in order to determine the feasibility of running in wet conditions on ovals . . . Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick participated in that Martinsville test . . . NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at Watkins Glen last August . . . 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.

Follow us on Twitter: @GoodyearRacing.

 

GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES

NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 8 – 250 laps / 131.5 miles

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – Race No. 7 – 200 laps / 105.2 miles

Martinsville Speedway (0.526-mile oval) – Martinsville, Va.

Fast Facts for April 14-15, 2023

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Short Track Radials

Set limits: Xfinity: 5 sets for the event;

     Craftsman Truck: 5 sets for the event

Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6118; Right-side — D-6120

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

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 10 psi; Left Rear — 10 psi;

     Right Front — 23 psi; Right Rear — 22 psi

Notes –Xfinity, Trucks return to Martinsville on 2022 tire set-up: Teams in both the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series will run the same tire set-up at Martinsville this weekend . . . being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, these teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series . . . these are the same two Goodyear tire codes that these teams ran at this track last season . . . as on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, Xfinity and Truck teams will not run liners in their tires at Martinsville.

Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear bringing wet weather tires to Martinsville: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radial tires to Martinsville for NASCAR Xfinity and Camping World Truck teams, should NASCAR determine that conditions warrant . . . Goodyear tested its 15-inch bead diameter wet weather tires on Cup cars at both Martinsville (April 2021) and Richmond (May 2021) in order to determine the feasibility of running in wet conditions on ovals . . . Goodyear followed up those tests with a wet weather test with Xfinity cars at Martinsville last June . . . teams participating in the June 2022 Xfinity test were the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and No. 98 Stewart=Haas Racing Ford . . . Xfinity teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at Portland last June, while the Trucks last ran in the wet at COTA in 2021 . . . 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.

Follow us on Twitter: @GoodyearRacing.

Goodyear Racing PR

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