GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES

NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 16 – 110 laps / 219 miles
Sonoma Raceway (1.99-mile road course) – Sonoma, Calif.

Fast Facts for June 8-9, 2024

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Road Course Radials

Set limits:
3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 6 sets for the race
(5 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)

Tire Code: D-5252 (same on all four tire positions)

Tire Circumference: 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 22 psi; Right Front — 20 psi;
Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi

Storyline – New track surface + new tire = more practice time at Sonoma: This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Sonoma Raceway for its first run on the freshly repaved road course.  Goodyear held a tire test at the facility in March to get a gauge on the new surface.  The result is a new tire for this weekend, which features increased tread thickness versus the tire that was run at Sonoma last season.  Since the new surface will likely not wear tires much on its own, the thicker tread gage will keep more heat in the tire and lead to more lap-time fall-off over the course of a run.  Cup teams will have a 50-minute practice with three sets of tires to prepare for the race.

“Whenever a facility is repaved, we like to get on track and hold a tire test before the event,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear director of racing.  “We were able to test at Sonoma back in March and, based on all the data we accumulated and feedback we received, we decided to go back with a tire with more gage in the tread.  Drivers commented that the tire had more grip and was more forgiving than the control tire with lighter gage. Of course, the additional rubber will hold more heat in the tire and should result in more fall-off.  Lap-time fall-off adds to the potential for more passing later in a run, and that leads to a more competitive race.  This being a new tire, along with the new surface, teams will be happy to have a full practice to help them hone in on their race set-ups.”

Notes – New Cup tire for repaved Sonoma: NASCAR Cup teams will run the same Goodyear tire code on all four corners of the car at Sonoma this weekend . . . being on an 18-inch bead diameter tire, Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity Series at Sonoma . . . this is a brand new tire for this track, and this is the first time it has been raced in competition . . . compared to Sonoma 2023, this tire features a construction update and more tread thickness to promote lap-time fall-off . . . this tire came out of a Goodyear test at Sonoma on March 26-27 . . . teams (drivers) participating in that test were the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet (Ross Chastain), No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford (Josh Berry) and No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Martin Truex Jr.) . . . Cup teams are scheduled to run this tire again on the Chicago street course in July . . . 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 . . . Cup teams have a total of 6 sets of “wets” for the event . . . Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at Richmond in April . . . the tread pattern on this tire is based on Goodyear’s Eagle Supercar 3 consumer tire . . . 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 TIRE NOTES

NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 14 – 79 laps / 157 miles
Sonoma Raceway (1.99-mile road course) – Sonoma, Calif.

Fast Facts for June 7-8, 2024

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Road Course Radials

Set limits: Xfinity: 6 sets for the event

Tire Code: D-6144 (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 a different tire than these teams ran at Sonoma last season (construction update) . . . this is the same tire Xfinity teams ran at Portland last week and at COTA in March . . . 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 teams last ran in wet conditions on the Indianapolis road course 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 Racing —