AVONDALE, Ariz. — One day after the NASCAR Cup Series held its third event with two Goodyear tire choices, dialing in the right race-ready rubber will again be in focus in a tire test scheduled Monday at Phoenix Raceway. This time, the objective is to evaluate a one-tire solution that’s suitable for the Championship Weekend’s host track and elsewhere.
Three drivers and teams (one from each Cup Series manufacturer) are set to participate in the Goodyear test: Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Josh Berry and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team and the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota for Tyler Reddick. By putting the different compounds to the test, Goodyear and NASCAR competition officials aim to continue the progression toward a softer tire with better grip but with advanced wear, which would impact pit-stop strategies for teams and on-track tire management for drivers.
RELATED: At-track photos: Phoenix | Cup Series schedule
The test comes one day after Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500, where a “prime” tire served as the baseline rubber with two sets of softer “option” tires available for teams to form their race-day strategies at the 1-mile Phoenix track. Recent tests informed this weekend’s tire setups, and Monday’s test here will help determine what sorts of decisions Goodyear could reach for tracks with similar setups — 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway and 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway, for example — and when the Cup Series returns to Phoenix for the title-deciding finale on Nov. 2.
“The goal is to develop a single tire that will give us what we need and what the drivers are asking for as far as tire wear and fall-off,” said Mark Keto, Goodyear’s senior technical project manager. “This is really a project that started probably 18 months ago. We tested at Sonoma, Watkins Glen last year, and we tested Martinsville and kind of had a breakthrough at the Watkins Glen and Martinsville tests, and that’s what you saw that raced at Watkins Glen and Martinsville, then at Bowman Gray. So it’s just building on what we’re learning with some different style compounds to generate that wear.”
Keto said that as part of the collaborative effort among Goodyear officials working with NASCAR’s competition group, drivers and teams, the input that’s been gathered in that approximate 18-month span has been positive. It’s come with a note of encouragement from drivers, who have welcomed the direction that Goodyear has taken, ever since last year’s springtime race at Bristol Motor Speedway placed an unexpected premium on tire management.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback,” Keto says. “The drivers asked us last year, they were very clear: ‘We want you to take more risks,’ and we understand the nature of taking more risks that sometimes you might step over the line, but the drivers have collectively told us, we’ve got your back. We want you to be more aggressive, and we feel like we’re getting better at finding that edge and pushing right up to that edge with some of the new technology we’re using on the compound side.”
Reddick said his anticipation of Monday’s test was high, hedging in Saturday remarks that his primary focus remained on his race-weekend goals with his No. 45 team. The previous weekend at the Circuit of The Americas, Reddick started from the pole position and registered a third-place finish, saying that tire strategy factored into the outcome.
“I think the more that we’ve gone the direction of making the tire softer, laying more rubber, I think it has helped the racing for this car,” Reddick said before Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions at Phoenix. “COTA has had some good races over the years, certainly, but I feel like we were primed to have that good finish we did because the tires were important to have. They did matter, so hopefully, it allows us to more frequently pit for tires and allows more rubber to go down on the track. The more rubber gets on the track, the more that we’re going to have to search around for grip. So I’m excited about it.”
MORE: Phoenix Raceway through the years
Sunday’s race marked only the third time that the Cup Series has competed with a choice in tire compounds. Option tires were also available for last year’s non-points All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May and made their points-paying debut in August at Richmond.
No other races are currently scheduled for the prime-and-option format, and Keto says that while the introduction of tire choices has been a worthwhile endeavor, having those competition rules become an every-week routine isn’t the ultimate objective.
“I think in our discussions with NASCAR and with the drivers, I think the majority prefer to have one tire, but they also understand what the use of an option tire allows us, right?” Keto said. “It’s the best test bed you can possibly get because you’re putting a tire in the competition, but you also have the primary tire there that if you do overstep it or you do run into blistering or the wear’s a little too high, you have the primary tire to fall back on. So we’re using it kind of as a learning experience, but obviously we can revisit it down the road, that if we find something that we think, hey, maybe we should run an option here, maybe at the All-Star Race or what have you. I think it’s always on the table, but that’s not a goal, to make it a regular occurrence.”