Goodyear Fast Facts – Phoenx

NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 36 – 312 laps / 312 miles

NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 33 – 200 laps / 200 miles

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series – Race No. 22 – 150 laps / 150 miles

Phoenix Raceway (1.0-mile oval) – Avondale, Ariz.

Fast Facts for November 5-7, 2021

Tire: Goodyear Eagle Speedway Radials

Set limits: Cup: 3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 9 sets for the race (8 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying); Xfinity: 6 sets for the event (maximum of 5 sets for the race); Truck: 6 sets for the event (maximum of 5 sets for the race)

Tire Codes: Left-side — D-4964; Right-side — D-4966

Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,218 mm (87.32 in.); Right-side — 2,244 mm (88.35 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 14 psi; Left Rear — 14 psi; Right Front — 32 psi; Right Rear — 30 psi

Storyline – NASCAR crowns its champions at Phoenix as Cup comes to the end an era: NASCAR will crown champions in its three national series at Phoenix Raceway this weekend.  In the Cup Series, the NASCAR package teams will be running is the high horsepower, low downforce package the series runs on short tracks.  After switching to this package in March 2020, Goodyear adjusted its tread compounds for Phoenix giving the Cup cars more mechanical grip, to counter-balance the loss of aerodynamic grip.  In addition to that, these compounds will wear more, bringing more fall-off in lap times.  More fall-off leads to tire management coming into play, with drivers that are easier on their tires early in a run being faster at the end of a run.  That phenomenon generally leads to more passing on the track.

One other note for the Cup Series – this race marks the end of an era for the 15-inch tire.  Goodyear has run 15-inch tires since the beginning of its involvement in NASCAR, which dates back to the late 1950s.  The tire maker will switch to 18-inch with the debut of the Next Gen Cup car next year (the Xfinity and Truck Series will remain on 15-inch), starting a new page in the history books.

“For the Cup Series this weekend, someone will go down as the last driver to win a championship on a 15-inch tire,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing.  “Goodyear has done a lot of development on its 15-inch racing program over the last 60-plus years, including the move from bias ply to radials back in the late 1980s, and now we transition to 18-inch for the 2022 Cup season.”

Notes – Returning to Phoenix on established tire set-up: Teams in all three NASCAR national series will run the same tire set-up at Phoenix this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires these teams began running at this track in 2020 . . . these teams have also run this tire set-up at Gateway (Trucks only), New Hampshire (Cup and Xfinity) and Richmond (all three series) over the last two seasons . . . as on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, teams will not run liners in their tires at Phoenix.

— Goodyear Racing —