Goodyear Fast Facts — Dover
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 11 – 400 laps / 400 miles Dover Motor Speedway (1.0-mile oval) – Dover, Del.
Fast Facts for April 27-28, 2024
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 9 sets for the race (8 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5170; Right-side — D-5162
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,254 mm (88.74 in.); Right-side — 2,277 mm (89.65 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 22 psi; Right Front — 48 psi; Right Rear — 44 psi
Storyline – Following Dover’s track surface is as easy as black and white: There are many things that are unique about Dover Motor Speedway, but for Goodyear perhaps the most important is the concrete surface. Rubbering in a concrete track is a special challenge, so Goodyear designs its tread compounds to specifically do that. The race then becomes a balance of laying rubber under the green flag when the cars are at full speed and the tires are wearing versus during caution periods when rubber gets picked back off the cooling track by the still hot tires. This will happen all race as tires continue to wear and turn the white track to black and then back to white again.
“Concrete tracks are always a challenge because of the relative smoothness of surface,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “The smoother the surface, the harder it is to lay rubber down. Because of that, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort on developing tread compounds for Dover that do just that. The interesting phenomenon is how you can literally see the tire tracks of the cars under caution as they pick the rubber back up as the track cools. That doesn’t last long, though, because the track begins to take rubber quickly on the next run as the cars get back to racing and tires begin to wear again.”
Notes – Cup teams return to Dover on established tire set-up: Being on 18-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity Series at Dover this weekend . . . both this left-side and right-side tire feature the same compounds and constructions that Cup teams ran at Dover last season . . . this specific tire combination is unique to Dover . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires.
