GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 9 – 500 laps / 266.5 miles
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 7 – 300 laps / 159.9 miles
Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) – Bristol, Tenn.
Fast Facts for May 31-June 1, 2020
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limits:
Cup: 10 sets for the race;
Xfinity: 5 sets for the race
Tire Codes:
Left-side — D-4860;
Right-side — D-4962
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,223 mm (87.52 in.);
Right-side – 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi;
Right Front — 45 psi; Right Rear — 40 psi
Storyline – Bristol is not your average short track: There are three factors that stand out when it comes to racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. First, the banking creates more speed and load than the “flatter” Martinsville Speedway or Richmond Raceway. This makes Bristol race more like a speedway than a short track in some ways. Second, Bristol has a full concrete surface, which wears tires fairly aggressively when the track is “green” with no rubber built up on it. Goodyear designs its tread compounds for Bristol to take the right amount of rubber and not “cake up” on the surface, leaving cars with a good level of grip. Third is the fact that Goodyear, NASCAR and the track operations staff will work together to apply the PJ1 grip compound to the lower four feet of both sets of corners for this weekend’s races. While this does impact tire wear, its primary purpose is to give drivers a competitive, alternate lane late in the race after many cars work their way up the track and make the upper lane the fastest way around.
“Bristol provides several unique challenges for both Goodyear and the race teams,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We have worked hard in recent years to refine the tread compounds that we bring there, as well as the other concrete tracks on the circuit. The key with concrete is to get it to take rubber, but just the right amount of rubber. It is easy to see that process once the race starts as the track turns from white to black, and lighten again as cars pick up some of that rubber when they are not at speed under cautions. Also, the tire constructions we bring to Bristol are more similar to what is run on speedways because of the speed in the high banked corners and the level of load placed on the tires. You also have to consider that PJ1 comes into play at Bristol. While the track has progressive banking, adding the grip compound to the bottom lane in the corners gives the drivers a viable, second groove. Teams will likely stay down low early in the race, but as more cars move up top and work that third groove into the fastest lane, the bottom will remain comparable and be a place where drivers can go to make passes.”
Notes – New right-side tire for Cup, Xfinity at Bristol: Teams in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series will run the same tire set-up at Bristol this week . . . these teams ran this same left-side tire code in both races at Bristol last year, but this is a brand new right-side tire code . . . compared to what Cup and Xfinity teams ran at Bristol in 2019, this right-side features a construction update that Goodyear has been rolling into most speedways . . . this is the only track at which these teams will run either of these two tire codes in 2020 . . . unlike on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, on which teams generally do not run inner liners in their tires, teams are required to run liners in their right-side tires only at Bristol . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
— Goodyear Racing —