Goodyear Fast Facts: Charlotte
NASCAR Cup Series – Race No. 14 – 400 laps / 600 miles Charlotte Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval) – Concord, N.C.
Fast Facts for May 26-28, 2023 Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 13 sets for the race (12 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5184; Right-side — D-5190
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,263 mm (89.09 in.); Right-side — 2,279 mm (89.72 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 22 psi; Right Front — 50 psi; Right Rear — 46 psi
Storyline – Cup Series starts second half of regular season at temperature sensitive Charlotte: The NASCAR Cup Series takes on its longest race of the season this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Because the race that starts in the daylight and ends at night, the 600-mile event sees a big swing in track temperatures. That phenomenon leads to teams having to keep up with the track and adjust their car set-ups. Often times, teams that lose touch with the leaders early in the race seem to come to life later, and vice versa.
“Charlotte is one of the more temperature sensitive race tracks on the NASCAR circuit, and that leads to teams making bigger adjustments to the car over the course of the race, including air pressure in the tires,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “Depending on how sunny and warm it gets during the day, the cars typically gain a large amount of grip as the sun goes down. That grip leads to speed and changing car conditions, making the teams that have built some adjustability in their set-ups the ones that will be good in that fourth stage.”
Notes – Cup teams ran this same combination of left- and right-side tires at Darlington two weeks ago . . . they have also run this right-side tire code at Fontana, Las Vegas and Kansas this season . . . this is a different tire set-up than Cup teams ran at Charlotte last season, with construction updates on both the left- and right-side tires vs. 2022 . . . 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.
Goodyear to run special “Honor and Remember” sidewall at Charlotte: Since 2010, for one weekend per NASCAR season, Goodyear has changed the branding on the sidewall of its racing tires in a show of support for the United States military and fallen heroes. This being the 14th year of that program, the official tire supplier to NASCAR’s top three series will work with the “Honor and Remember” organization for the fifth straight year. The standard “Eagle” on the tires’ sidewall will be replaced by the Honor and Remember logo on all Cup, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series tires at Charlotte Motor Speedway this week, as is part of the industry-wide effort known as “NASCAR Salutes.”
GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 12 – 200 laps / 300 milesNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – Race No. 11 – 134 laps / 201 miles Charlotte Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval) – Concord, N.C.Fast Facts for May 26-27, 2023 Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Xfinity: 6 sets for the event; Truck: 5 sets for the event
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6110; Right-side — D-6130 Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,225 mm (87.60 in.); Right-side — 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 18 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi; Right Front — 50 psi; Right Rear — 48 psi
Notes – Xfinity and Truck teams return to Charlotte on ’22 tire set-up: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Charlotte this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that teams in these two series ran at Charlotte last season . . . these teams have run this left-side tire code at Las Vegas (both series), Kansas (Trucks only) and Texas (Trucks only) this season . . . they have also run this right-side code at Darlington (both series) two weeks ago . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, Xfinity and Truck teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Charlotte . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.