Goodyear Fast Facts — Sonoma

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 16 – 110 laps / 218.9 miles

Sonoma Raceway (1.99-mile road course) – Sonoma, Calif.

Fast Facts for June 10-11, 2023

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Road Course Radials

Set limits: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 6 sets for the race

     (5 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)

Tire Codes: Left-front & Right-rear — D-5212; Right-front & Left-rear – D-5213

Tire Circumference: 2,240 mm (88.19 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 22 psi; Right Front — 20 psi;

     Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi

Storyline – One tire, two tire codes for NASCAR Cup teams: With these heavy, high horsepower NASCAR Cup cars, racing on such a technical road course as Sonoma Raceway puts an incredible amount of stress on the tires.  That includes the hard braking entering the turns affecting the front tires and hard acceleration off the turns affecting the rears.  One part of the tire that is particularly stressed is the tread splice, the area of the tread that is joined together in the manufacturing process.  Because of that, Goodyear now runs one tire on the Cup cars at road courses with two different tire codes.  This allows it to build each of the two codes and have the tread run directionally to handle the different stresses asked of it, no matter if it’s run on the front or rear, left-side or right-side.  As a result, the left-front and right rear tires will have one code (D-5152) while the right-front and left-rear tires will have a different code (D-5153), which is different than on ovals where all the lefts have one code and all the rights have a different code.

     “Our tire set-up on road courses is different than the one we run on ovals,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing.  “Instead of having separate right- and left-side codes, on road courses we directionally mount our tires in order to protect the tread splice, which is beveled and comes together across the tread.  After we designate the tire as a left-front/right-rear or a right-front/left-rear and decorate the outboard sidewall, we now insure that the tread splice remains ‘closed’ under braking on both front tires and under acceleration on both rears.”

Notes – Sonoma tire now aligned with other NASCAR Cup road courses: These are two different Goodyear tire codes than what NASCAR Cup teams ran at Sonoma last season, with a compound change to bring this track in line with other road courses . . . this tire set-up has been run by these teams at COTA earlier this season, and will be run again at the Charlotte Roval, Chicago street course, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen later . . . the two tire codes have identical constructions and compounds, but they carry different codes because of the way they are mounted (see above) . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars do not run inner liners in any of their tires.

Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear brings white-lettered “wets” to Sonoma: Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radials to Sonoma for use by teams in the NASCAR Cup Series, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . the tread pattern on this tire is based on Goodyear’s Eagle Supercar 3 consumer tire . . . NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro last month, and the last time on a road course 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.

Goodyear involved in Garage 56 project at 24 Hours of Le Mans: Goodyear has teamed with NASCAR, Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports to field an entry of a NASCAR Next Gen inspired car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France this weekend . . . the race, to be held this Saturday/Sunday (June 10-11), comes after more than a year of planning, testing and development . . . Goodyear will bring three distinct tires to the event – standard dry tires designed for maximum performance and endurance, intermediate wet tires for conditions in mist or light rain, and full wet tires for running in heavier rain.

Follow us on Twitter: @GoodyearRacing.

 

GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES

NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 14 – 75 laps / 149.3 miles

Sonoma Raceway (1.99-mile road course) – Sonoma, Calif.

Fast Facts for June 9-10, 2023

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Road Course Radials

Set limits: Xfinity: 6 sets for the event

Tire Code: D-5122 (same on all four tire positions)

Tire Circumference: 2,240 mm (88.58 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 22 psi; Right Front — 20 psi;

     Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi

Notes – Second week in a row on this Goodyear tire for Xfinity teams: As on all NASCAR road courses, teams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series will run the same Goodyear tire code on all four tire positions at Sonoma . . . this is the same tire Xfinity teams ran at Portland last week and at COTA in March . . . they also ran this tire on all of their road courses in 2022 . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, Xfinity teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Sonoma.

Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radials to Sonoma for use by Xfinity Series teams, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . teams will have 5 sets of wets available for the event, with a maximum of 4 sets for the race . . . Xfinity last ran in wet conditions at Portland in 2022 . . . 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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