GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES
NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 14 — 68 laps / 231.88 miles
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 11 — 46 laps / 156.86 miles
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series — Race No. 9 — 41 laps / 139.81 miles
Circuit of The Americas (3.41-mile road course) — Austin, Tex.
Fast Facts for May 21-23, 2021
Tire: Goodyear Eagle Road Course Radials
Set limits:
Cup: 3 sets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 6 sets for the race (5 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying);
Xfinity: 6 sets for the event;
Truck: 5 sets for the event
Tire Code:
D-4990 (same on all four tire positions)
Tire Circumference:
2,240 mm (88.19 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 20 psi; Right Front — 22 psi;
Left Rear — 17 psi; Right Rear — 17 psi
Storyline — Cup teams will find new but similar challenges at COTA: As the NASCAR Cup Series visits Circuit of The Americas for the first time, drivers and teams will find a unique challenge that combines elements of the two previous road courses it has run in recent years — Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International. Like Sonoma, COTA has significant elevation changes and some slow speed corners. Like Watkins Glen, COTA also features some long straightaways and high speed sections. Being a new track on the NASCAR schedule, Goodyear held a tire test at the circuit in March. The result was a new tire that is similar to the one that Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series teams have run at Mid-Ohio, Mosport and Road America in the past, with just a slight construction change.
“We had a very productive test at COTA earlier this year, and we feel good about our tire recommendation,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear‘s director of racing. “We had three champions — Martin (Truex Jr.), Brad (Keselowski) and Chase (Elliott) — and their championship teams doing that test so we got a lot of good work done. COTA has some high-speed sections like Watkins Glen and some more technical sections like Sonoma. Obviously, the teams and drivers have experience with those varied sections from racing at those two tracks, and they‘ll be challenged to blend them together this weekend. With a bit of practice this week, everyone will get a chance to get a handle on the COTA circuit before the race, and we look forward to a very entertaining afternoon.”
Notes — New tire debuts at COTA: Teams in all three NASCAR national series will run the same tire at Circuit of The Americas this weekend . . . this is the first time this tire is being run . . . this tire came out of a Goodyear test at COTA on March 2 . . . teams/drivers participating in that test were the No. 2 Team Penske Ford with Brad Keselowski, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with Chase Elliott and No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with Martin Truex Jr. . . . this is the same tire NASCAR teams will run at the Indianapolis road course, Mid-Ohio, Mosport and Road America in 2021 . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Road America.
Wet Weather Tires — White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its wet weather radials for use by teams in all NASCAR series on the COTA, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . Cup teams will have up to 3 sets of wets for practice/qualifying and up to 5 sets for the race . . . Xfinity will have 5 sets of wets available for their event, with a maximum of 4 sets for the race . . . Trucks will have 4 sets of wets available for their event, with a maximum of 3 sets for the race . . . this tire was last run in NASCAR competition by Camping World Truck Series teams at Daytona in February . . . the last time Cup and Xfinity Series teams ran on wet weather tires was at the Charlotte Roval last October . . . 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 —
