Additional tire tests are currently on the books for Homestead-Miami Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, according to Goodyear officials.
Both tests are scheduled to take place after the completion of the 2015 season. The Homestead test is on tap for Dec. 14-15 and the Las Vegas test is slated for Jan. 12-13, 2016.
Two final previously scheduled ’15 tests will see Goodyear and teams travel to Phoenix International Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway next month. The AMS test replaces a test originally scheduled for Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
Whether an open team test will be included at Atlanta has yet to be determined. A single-day test has followed most of the Goodyear tire tests conducted this season.
Because next season’s Atlanta race likely would once again be held early in the season, there is a limited the window of opportunity for potential testing at the 1.5-mile track. NASCAR officials have yet to announce the 2016 race schedule for the Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series.
“Atlanta is a recent addition,” Stu Grant, Goodyear’s General Manager for Global Race Tires, told NASCAR.com this past weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. “We’ve talked to NASCAR about ‘hey do you want to make an open test for that? It’s most likely that we’ll end up with a different tire for the Atlanta race for 2016. … We want to test the 2016 rules package and you guys may want to have an open test.'”
Grant said to his knowledge, an open team test following the Atlanta tire test had not been confirmed.
Teams participating in the Goodyear tire tests at Homestead and Las Vegas have not been announced.
Because Goodyear tested with the low downforce configuration being considered for 2016 at Darlington (South Carolina) Raceway, and teams raced with a similar package there earlier this month, Grant said it would be unlikely that Goodyear would return to Darlington for testing next year.
“But we always have to leave that open just to kind of see how things evolve,” he said. “Because the reality is in this sport you have a rules package and the car configuration and a tire setup, right? You run it and it may look good at the first event of the season; by the time you get to the second event, the cars may be a half a second faster. Things change. So I guess I’d say we’ll have to see how ’16 plays out and see if there is a significant change in how the teams are approaching the car setups and things like that.”
NASCAR has also yet to announce its 2016 rules package, but is scheduled to meet with teams and others within the industry this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Under this year’s National Series Unified Testing policy, teams are no longer allowed to conduct private tests. The bulk of the on-track testing has come during scheduled Goodyear evaluations as well as open team tests held the following day.
Because of a new rules package in use for ’15, and the additional work toward development of the ’16 package, Goodyear conducted more tests than normal this year, but Grant said he expects the company’s ’16 testing program to be more line with previous seasons.
“So you can probably figure that Goodyear is probably going to test about 10 times in 2016 and if NASCAR has the same policy in 2016 then that’s what (teams are) looking at,” he said. “But I don’t know if things are going to change … or not. We don’t know what the race schedule is so consequently we haven’t really laid out a test program. I’m not sure where NASCAR is going to land on that open testing side.”
Overall, Grant said, the move to a lower downforce package has provided Goodyear a broader range of possibilities from which to work.
“It’s nice to design a tire for the low downforce package because when you take the aero off and the driver and the car is relying more on the tire for grip in the corner, it makes the tire more a part of the package,” he said. “We’re not just designing for wear and heat and durability to handle the load … it gives us a lot more freedom, a lot bigger window to design a tire in.”
Live Viewing of Final Inspection at NASCAR R&D
Fans can now watch teams as their cars go through final post-race inspection at NASCAR’s Research and Development Center each Tuesday, thanks to live streaming of the process each week on NASCAR.com.
First- and second-place finishers from the previous weekend’s Sprint Cup Series race, as well as a random selection, are taken back to the center each week for a more detailed inspection.
To watch the process, which begins promptly at 8 a.m. ET, fans can go to https://www.nascar.com/inspection.html.