NASCAR Cup Series – Race No. 20 – 75 laps / 165 miles Chicago street course (2.2-mile road course) – Chicago, Ill.
Fast Facts for July 6-7, 2024
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: 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 – Second year in the Second City: Returning to the streets of Chicago for the second NASCAR Cup race, the sport has a better idea of what to expect of the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course. Goodyear has a different tire for this year’s race, with increased tread thickness to hold heat in the tire and promote more lap-time fall-off over the course of a run. That is something Goodyear has been designing into its road course and short track tires in 2024. The increased heat leads to the fall-off, which leads to more disparity in performance based on driving style and potentially more passing throughout the field. Much of last year’s race was run in wet conditions and Goodyear will have its wet weather tires on hand again, though the forecast looks clear for this weekend.
“We learned a lot about the Chicago street course last year, both in wet and dry conditions,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We have made a couple updates to our road course tire for 2024 and had a successful race on this package at Sonoma last month. One thing we’ve been doing on our road course and short track tire set-ups this season is increasing the tread gage (thickness) to keep more heat in the tire and increase fall-off. Ultimately, that fall-off puts more control into the drivers hands through tire management, which can be key in taking advantage of passing opportunities throughout a run.”
Notes – Cup teams on Sonoma tire at Chicago: Being on 18-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity Series on the Chicago street course this weekend . . . Cup teams will run the same Goodyear tire code on all four tire positions on the Chicago street course . . . this tire debuted at Sonoma in June . . . compared to what Cup teams ran at Chicago last season, this tire features a construction update and more tread thickness . . . 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 Chicago: Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radials to the Chicago street course for use by teams in the NASCAR Cup Series, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . Cup teams will have 6 sets of wet weather tires for the event . . . NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at New Hampshire two weeks ago, with the last time on a road/street course at this race last July . . . 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.
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 18 – 50 laps / 110 miles Chicago street course (2.2-mile road course) – Chicago, Ill.
Fast Facts for July 6, 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 – Fourth race this season on this tire for Xfinity teams: Being on 15-inch tires, NASCAR Xfinity teams will run a different tire than those in the Cup Series in Chicago this weekend . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams in the Xfinity teams will run the same Goodyear tire code on all four tire positions on the Chicago street course . . . this tire debuted on Xfinity cars at COTA in March, and has also been run at Portland and Sonoma this season . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, Xfinity teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Chicago.
Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radials to Chicago 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 at New Hampshire two weeks ago . . . 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 —