NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 3 — 267 laps / 400.5 miles
Las Vegas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval) — Las Vegas, Nev.
Fast Facts for March 4-5, 2023
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 9 sets for the race (8 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5186; Right-side — D-5190
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,263 mm (89.09 in.); Right-side — 2,279 mm (89.72 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 22 psi; Right Front — 50 psi; Right Rear — 46 psi
Storyline — Vegas is a temperature sensitive race track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway has traditionally not produced much tire wear, but that has slowly started to change over the past few years. However, there is another factor that has played into that upon a deeper look. Over the last several races at the 1.5-mile speedway, the warmer the ambient temperature — and, by extension, the warmer the track temperature — the more tire wear teams will see. With warmer temps, grip goes down a bit, leading to more lateral slip with the heavy Cup cars and more tire wear. When the temperature is cooler, the cars are more “in the track” and, therefore, wear tires less. The difference in temperature could lead to a one second variance in lap time fall-off — approximately one second per lap over the course of a fuel run on a cool day vs. two seconds on a warm day.
“After many years being considered a low tire wear track, wear has actually started to increase at Las Vegas recently,” said Greg Stucker. “The package that Cup teams run on these mile-and-a-half tracks with the Next Gen car can generate a good deal of lateral slip, especially if the track temperatures are elevated on a hot or sunny day. Those conditions will lead to more tire wear.”
Notes — Cup cars on Fontana tire set-up at Vegas: Being on the 18-inch bead diameter tire, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series at Las Vegas this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that Cup teams ran at Las Vegas last September . . . they also ran this same tire set-up at Fontana last weekend . . . last season, in addition to Las Vegas-2, Cup teams ran this set-up at the fall Kansas and Texas races . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires in 2023.
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 3 — 200 laps / 300 miles
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — Race No. 2 — 134 laps / 201 miles
Las Vegas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval) — Las Vegas, Nev.
Fast Facts for March 3-4, 2023
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Xfinity: 6 sets for the event; Truck: 5 sets for the event
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6110; Right-side — D-6112
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,225 mm (87.60 in.); Right-side — 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 19 psi; Left Rear — 19 psi; Right Front — 52 psi; Right Rear — 48 psi
Notes — Xfinity, Trucks return to Las Vegas on 2022 tire set-up: 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 Las Vegas this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires teams in both of these series ran at Las Vegas in 2022 . . . they also ran this same tire set-up at Kansas (both series), Michigan (Xfinity only) and Texas (both series) last season . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, Xfinity and Truck teams are required to run liners in all four tire positions at Las Vegas . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
— Goodyear —
