NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 25 – 90 laps / 221 miles Watkins Glen International (2.454-mile road course) – Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Fast Facts for August 19-20, 2023
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Road Course Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 6 sets for the race (5 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-Front/Right-Rear: D-5212; Right-Front/Left-Rear: D-5213
Tire Circumference: 2,275 mm (89.57 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 26 psi; Right Front — 24 psi; Left Rear — 21 psi; Right Rear — 21 psi
Storyline – Teams on consistent tire set-up as they tackle high speed Watkins Glen: The NASCAR Cup circuit visits Watkins Glen International this weekend, making it back-to-back road course races for the series. Among the left-right courses these teams run on, Watkins Glen is on the more high speed and less technical end of the spectrum. With the advent of the Next Gen car, Goodyear has been able to consolidate its tire set-ups and run the same combination on all road courses. The Watkins Glen race will be the fifth Cup race on these two Goodyear tire codes this season, giving teams the ability to work from their well established notebooks.
“Because of Watkins Glen’s configuration and the fact that it was repaved as recently as 2016, cars carry a lot of sustained speeds on this course,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “In tuning the tire to the track, teams have an advantage in that they are well familiar with the set-up we will be running this week. After debuting at COTA earlier this season, Cup teams have been on this tire four times in 2023, including last week at Indy. That should help teams get up to speed quickly at The Glen.“
Notes – Cup teams on standard road course tire set-up at Watkins Glen: Being on 18-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen this week . . . this is a different tire set-up than these teams ran at The Glen last year, featuring a compound change to give the cars more grip and introduce more tire wear and fall-off in lap times over the course of a run . . . this tire set-up has already been run at Circuit of The Americas, Sonoma, Chicago and Indianapolis this season . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in their tires.
Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear brings white-lettered “wets” to The Glen: Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radials to Watkins Glen for use by teams in the NASCAR Cup Series, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . the tread pattern on this tire is based on Goodyear’s Eagle Supercar 3 consumer tire . . . NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition Chicago street course last month . . . 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.
NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 23 – 82 laps / 201 miles Watkins Glen International (2.454-mile road course) – Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Fast Facts for August 18-19, 2023
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Road Course Radials
Set limits: Xfinity: 5 sets for the event
Tire Code: D-6122 (same on all four tire positions)
Tire Circumference: 2,240 mm (88.19 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 26 psi; Right Front — 24 psi; Left Rear — 21 psi; Right Rear — 21 psi
Notes – Seventh race this season on this tire for Xfinity teams: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Xfinity Series teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Watkins Glen this week . . . Xfinity will run the same tire on all four positions at The Glen . . . this is the same tire these teams have run on all road courses since the beginning of the 2022 season, including at COTA, Portland, Sonoma, Chicago, Road America and Indianapolis in 2023 . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Watkins Glen.
Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radials to Watkins Glen for use by Xfinity Series teams, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . teams will have 5 sets of wets available for the event, with a maximum of 4 sets for the race . . . Xfinity teams have run in wet conditions on both the Chicago street course and the Indianapolis road course within the past seven weeks . . . 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 —