Goodyear Fast Facts — Darlington

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 25 – Bojangles Southern 500
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 24 – SportClips Haircuts VFW 200
Darlington Raceway (1.366-mile oval) – Darlington, S.C.
Fast Facts for August 31-September 2, 2018

Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials

Set limits:
Cup: 3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 13 sets for the race;
Xfinity: 7 sets for the event

Tire Codes: Left-side — D-4834; Right-side — D-4736

Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,216 mm (87.24 in.);
Right-side — 2,251 mm (88.62 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 19 psi; Left Rear – 19 psi;
Right Front — 52 psi; Right Rear — 48 psi

Storyline – Throwback weekend features a throwback track surface:Since its most recent repave in 2007, Darlington Raceway has
now returned to its historical status as a high tire wear track. With fall-off being more than three seconds a lap over the course of a fuel run, tire management is key to running well. Taking care of tires early in a run will pay off later. More “comers” and “goers” throughout the field leads
to more passing and more exciting racing. Also of note, the Cup race tire set limit at Darlington is 13 sets for this weekend, the highest of any track on
the circuit.

“The ‘old,’ high-wear Darlington is back,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “For many years, Darlington had the most abrasive track surface on the circuit, but that all changed about 10 years ago when it was repaved. Slowly, over the past decade, the surface has become more and more abrasive and harder on tires again. Going to Darlington now, with its throwback theme, seems highly appropriate now that we are back to a high tire wear/tire management race-style race that always seems to produce a great show for the fans.”

Notes – Tire test yields new set-up for Darlington: Teams in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series will run the same tire set-up at Darlington this weekend . . . while this is the first time NASCAR teams have run this left-side tire code, teams in both of these series did run this right-side code at Charlotte in May . . . this tire set-up came out of a Goodyear test at Darlington on June 5-6 . . . drivers participating in that test were Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and Daniel Suarez . . . compared to what teams in both series ran last year, this left-side tire features a construction update to align it with what is run at other speedways, while this right-side tire features a compound change to give the cars more grip . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Darlington . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.

Throwback Tires – White-lettered tires return to Darlington: In support of Darlington’s throwback initiative, the tires run at this weekend’s races will feature different sidewall markings . . . replacing the yellow Goodyear Eagle lettering that became standard in 1992 is a white, stencil-look design that harkens back to the early 1990s.

— Goodyear Racing —