KANSAS CITY, Kan. – With Wednesday's announcement that NASCAR will use a lower-downforce rules package for the Sprint Cup Series in 2016, teams will be busy during the off-season building cars that will conform to the new specifications.
Equally busy will be engineers and tire builders at Goodyear, the lone supplier of race tires for NASCAR's national series. Goodyear has scheduled 13 tire tests at tracks through the middle of 2016 to fine-tune tire compounds for individual speedways.
The new rules package, used this season at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway, will provide less grip in the corners, and Goodyear generally will build softer tires to fit that template.
"We have a good view of what to expect and what our role is going to be," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales. "We'll optimize grip for the package. Everybody seemed to very much like what we did at Darlington. That's our goal – to provide that level of grip at all the race tracks where we run low downforce."
Stucker said Goodyear is a little ahead of the game after testing low-downforce packages at tracks at Charlotte, Michigan and Fontana, Calif., late last year.
"We put a lot of miles on the package, so I think we have a good feel for what the car likes in that configuration," he said. "Now it's going to be trying to tune the package to each race track, knowing each is a little different."
Stucker said tires aren't likely to change at superspeedways at Daytona and Talladega (where the low-downforce package won't be used) or at the Martinsville and Bristol short tracks.
He said the new tire compounds require a delicate balance. Softer tires are preferred, but there is a fine line between a softer compound and one that is so soft it won't fare well in endurance.
"When we go softer, the cars become more fragile," he said. "They tend to run hotter and tend to wear more and tend to give up more. You have to watch everything."
A general goal, Stucker said, is to have tires last through a fuel run.
"If everything is right, (tires lasting through) a fuel stop won't be a problem," he said. "But, depending on where you are with your setup, it might be the strategy to pit earlier."
