NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 21 – 156 laps / 312 miles
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 22 – 156 laps / 312 miles
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series – Race No. 11 – 100 laps / 200 miles
Michigan International Speedway (2.0-mile oval) – Brooklyn, Mich.
Fast Facts for August 7-9, 2020
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limits:
Cup – Saturday: 6 sets for the race;
Cup – Sunday: 6 sets for the race;
Truck: 4 sets for the event
Tire Codes:
Left-side — D-4976;
Right-side — D-4978
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,224 mm (87.56 in.);
Right-side — 2,252 mm (88.66 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 19 psi; Left Rear – 19 psi;
Right Front — 52 psi; Right Rear — 48 psi
Storyline – Popular tire set-up adds a shortcut for Michigan car set-ups: For the third time in five race weekends, NASCAR Cup teams will run the same combination of left- and right-side tires. With the track schedules not including practice or qualifying, this is a big advantage to teams as it removes one variable from honing in on their race set-ups. Michigan International Speedway, like recent stops at Kentucky Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, is a relatively smooth track surface that does not wear tires on its own. Goodyear has refined its tread compounds at these tracks to introduce wear, which helps tires run cooler and at a more optimum level. Along with that, this left-side tire has been changed since last season’s race and will increase the level of grip.
“With limited track time under the current schedules, teams enter this weekend’s races at Michigan already being familiar with this tire set-up,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “In the past, under more ‘normal’ conditions, teams would be able to work through the practice sessions to dial in on their car set-ups, with a big part of that being finding the balance on how the tire is working with the track. We’ve aligned this recent group of race tracks based on the smooth track surfaces and similar factors like speeds and loads, and that helps teams as they build their notebooks from which to work. That will be enhanced this weekend, of course, as Cup teams will run races on consecutive days, so it will be interesting to see who unloads strong on Saturday and who will be able to make adjustments and improve for Sunday.”
Notes – Cup, Truck teams to run Texas/Kentucky/Las Vegas tire set-up at Michigan: Teams in both the NASCAR Cup and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series will run the same tire set-up at Michigan this weekend . . . this is the first time these teams have run these Goodyear tire codes at Michigan, though they have run them several times already this season . . . Cup and Truck teams have run this same combination of tires in recent weeks at Texas and Kentucky, as well as at Las Vegas in February . . . they also ran this right-side tire code (with a different left-side code) at Kansas two weeks ago . . . compared to what they ran at Michigan last August, this tire set-up features construction updates on both sides of the car and a compound change on the left-side for 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 Michigan . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 18 – 45 laps / 182.16 miles
Road America (4.048-mile road course) – Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Fast Facts for August 8, 2020
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Road Course Radials
Set limits: 5 sets for the race
Tire Code: D-4920 (same on all four tire positions)
Tire Circumference: 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 22 psi; Right Front — 20 psi;
Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi
Notes – Xfinity cars return to Road America on same tire: NASCAR Xfinity Series teams will run the same tire code on all four corners of the car at Road America . . . this is the same tire they ran on this course in 2019 . . . these teams also ran this tire at Mid-Ohio last season and on the Indianapolis road course last month . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Road America.
Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its wet weather radials for use by Xfinity Series teams at Road America, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . teams are allowed up to two sets of “wets” for the race . . . this tire was last run by Xfinity teams at Watkins Glen in 2018 . . . they were previously run by these teams at Road America in 2014 . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires, the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.
— Goodyear Racing —