Goodyear Fast Facts — Gateway / Portland
GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 15 – 240 laps / 300 miles
World Wide Technology Raceway (1.25-mile oval) – Madison, Ill.
Fast Facts for June 1-2, 2024
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup:
1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 10 sets for the race
(9 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5208; Right-side — D-5210
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,249 mm (88.54 in.);
Right-side — 2,278 mm (89.69 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 14 psi; Left Rear — 14 psi;
Right Front — 30 psi; Right Rear — 26 psi
Storyline – Gateway tire set-up aligns with short tracks: While World Wide Technology Raceway is 1.25 miles in length, it falls into the same Goodyear tire grouping as the NASCAR short tracks. With new Cup tire set-ups for that style track this season – featuring a thicker tread package – these teams have already run this weekend’s set-up despite it being new to this track. Cup teams have already run this same tire combination at Phoenix and Richmond in March. Goodyear moved to the thicker tread (gage) at Martinsville Speedway in the fall of 2023 in a move to increase lap-time fall-off over the course of a run. More gage keeps more heat in the tire, thus leading to more fall-off.
“Since Gateway joined the Cup schedule back in 2022, it has fallen into our group of short track set-ups,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We’ve been working on our tire set-ups as the sport has continued to make adjustments to the short track package with this Next Gen car. We first increased the gage in the Martinsville set-up last fall, and that’s the direction we’ve continued to go with Phoenix and Richmond earlier this season and now at Gateway. A thicker gage allows less heat to dissipate through the tire’s tread, and that will cause more fall-off over a run. Since Cup teams have run this same set-up twice already this season, they have a good playbook started and will know what to expect.”
Notes – Cup teams to run new Phoenix/Richmond tire set-up at Gateway: Being on an 18-inch bead diameter tire, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Craftsman Truck Series at Gateway this weekend . . . this is a different combination of left- and right-side tires than Cup teams ran at Gateway last season . . . compared to 2023, these tires have more gage (tread thickness) to align with similar tracks on the circuit . . . Cup teams have run this same tire set-up at Phoenix and Richmond in 2024 . . . with this 18-inch tire and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars do not run inner liners in any of their tires.