Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series – Race No. 19 – Quaker State 400
NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 17 – Alsco 300
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series – Race No. 13 – Buckle Up In Your Truck 225
Kentucky Speedway (1.5-mile oval) – Sparta, Ky.
Fast Facts for July 11-13, 2019
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limits:
Cup: 3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying, 8 sets for the race
(7 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying or practice);
Xfinity: 7 sets for the event;
Truck: 5 sets for the event
Tire Codes:
Left-side — D-4798;
Right-side — D-4796
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,227 mm (87.68 in.);
Right-side — 2,251 mm (88.62 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 22 psi; Left Rear — 22 psi;
Right Front — 52 psi; Right Rear — 50 psi
Storyline – Goodyear to introduce more wear with this right-side tire: Kentucky Speedway was repaved for the 2017 race, so the relatively smooth track surface doesn’t naturally wear tires. Unlike for other facilities with more abrasive track surfaces like Darlington Raceway or Chicagoland Speedway, Goodyear must formulate its tread compounds to aid in the wearing process at Kentucky. The right-side tire teams will run this week has already been run at some other tracks with similar surfaces, most recently at Michigan International Speedway last month. Consolidating this right-side tire code with what is run at those other tracks gives teams a chance to work from their existing notebook.
“Over the past several years, we’ve had quite a few tracks that have been resurfaced, including Kentucky Speedway,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We held a test at another recent repave at Texas Motor Speedway last August, and the goal of that session was to try to introduce more wear at some of these tracks with non-abrasive surfaces like Texas and Kentucky. We found something that has worked well, so we’ve brought this same right-side out several times with good results. It also benefits the teams by being able to run the same tire code at different tracks so they can remove that variable from the equation.”
Notes – Switch to popular right-side tire at Kentucky: Teams in all three NASCAR national series in action at Kentucky this week will run the same tire set-up . . . teams will run the same left-side tire code as last year at Kentucky . . . this is the first time these teams have run this right-side tire code at Kentucky, though it has been run it at Las Vegas (Cup & Xfinity), Texas (all three series), Kansas (Cup & Truck) and Michigan (Cup and Xfinity) earlier this season . . . compared to what was run at this track last season, this right-side tire features a compound change to bring it into line with what is run at several other tracks with relatively “smooth” track surfaces . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run liners in all four tire positions at Kentucky . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
— Goodyear Racing —