With springtime comes warmer weather across the country which, in turn, marks the beginning of testing season at some of NASCARs more northern tracks for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. After running a two-day test down south at Daytona International Speedway on April 16-17, the exclusive tire supplier for NASCARs top three divisions moved up north this past Tuesday and Wednesday to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to be followed by sessions at Chicagoland Speedway next week (May 7-8) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway the following week (May 14-15). ‘Now that the weather is scheduled to break, it opens up our palette of race tracks for testing to continue our tire development with the Gen-6 car’ said Greg Stucker, Goodyears director of race tire sales. ‘Weve had a great start to the season, and NASCAR deserves a lot of credit for all the work theyve put in to the new car. We used the early part of the season to collect a lot of data on race weekends to see how our tires work with the Gen-6. We feel very good about our results so far and we just want to stay on top of things and see where improvements can be made. As teams have more time with the new car, their set-ups will evolve, so we need to stay in tune with those changes. Track testing in advance of summer races at some of these tracks is the best way to do that.” Goodyear started the spring testing season with the two-day session at Daytona. Day one featured single car runs as teams sorted through several tire options. Day two was run mostly in multi-car packs, with the nine teams getting in two 20-lap runs. It was a fruitful session that yielded a new tire recommendation for NASCAR weekend scheduled for this coming July. ‘We tested at Daytona mainly to keep up with the race track, since its now been a couple years since the re-pave” said Stucker. ‘After running the 500 down there in February, and what we learned at the test, we will go back there in July with a new recommendation. Weve decided to change the compounds on both sides of the car and update the left-side construction to incorporate changes that weve successfully made at several other race tracks.” Goodyear followed that up with a test this past week at Indianapolis, which has a grooved surface that is known for aggressively wearing tires. Drivers and teams participating in that six-car test were #21-Trevor Bayne, #78-Kurt Busch, #24-Jeff Gordon, #2-Brad Keselowski, #55-Mark Martin and #14-Tony Stewart. ‘Indianapolis is obviously a unique configuration and not like any other surface we race on. Weve been very happy with our set-up over the last several years, and we want to be able to match that on these cars that have more left-side weight, more downforce and cambered rear ends’ said Stucker. ‘We completed two full days of testing this week and we had excellent weather that provided conditions very typical of what we might expect in July “ sunny and mid-80-degree temperatures. All six teams participated in evaluations, and contributed a lot of data for us to review in determining the recommendation for this years race, which we will finalize over the coming weeks.” Goodyear continues on with tests at Chicagoland and New Hampshire, two tracks that will host three races on the remaining NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. ‘At Chicagoland, our goal will be evaluating any changes to the track surface and learning more about this car on the intermediate tracks, which is the most popular style track on the circuit’ said Stucker. ‘Driver feedback from Loudon last year identified that track as an opportunity to increase grip. The focus of that test will be to come up with the right balance of grip, wear and fall off for the new car on that surface.” Drivers and teams scheduled for do the Chicagoland test are #16-Greg Biffle, #18-Kurt Busch, #29-Kevin Harvick, #48-Jimmie Johnson, #1-Jamie McMurray and #39-Ryan Newman. Set to handle the New Hampshire test are #7-Dave Blaney, #15-Clint Bowyer, #31-Jeff Burton, #24-Jeff Gordon, #20-Matt Kenseth and #22-Joey Logano. Later in the year, Goodyear has already scheduled additional tests for Atlanta Motor Speedway (June 18-19), Homestead-Miami Speedway on August 27-28, Phoenix International Raceway on September 10-11, Richmond International Raceway on October 15-16 and Las Vegas Motor Speedway on October 22-23.(Goodyear Racing PR)
