NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 29 – 500 laps / 266.5 miles
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 26 — 300 laps / 159.9 miles
NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series — Race No. 18 — 200 laps / 106.6 miles
Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) – Bristol, Tenn.
Goodyear Fast Facts — BristolFast Facts for September 17-19, 2020
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials
Set limits:
Cup: 10 sets for the race;
Xfinity: 4 sets for the race;
Truck: 4 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 stacks challenges high on its high-banks: 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” short tracks like 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 necessarily impact tire wear, its primary purpose is to give drivers a competitive, alternate lane late in which to race.
“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.”
Notes – Third NASCAR weekend of the season at Bristol on this tire set-up: Teams in all three NASCAR national series will run on the same tire set-up at Bristol this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that Cup and Xfinity teams ran at Bristol for the points races on May 31-June 1 (both series) and the All-Star race on July 15 (Cup only) . . . Truck Series teams ran this same left-side tire code at Bristol last August, but this is the first time they have run this right-side code . . . compared to what the Trucks ran last season, this right-side tire features a construction update that Goodyear has been rolling into most speedways . . . this is the only track at which Cup 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 —