Goodyear Fast Facts: Homestead-Miami Speedway

Nov. 14, 2017

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Race No. 36 – Ford Ecoboost 400
NASCAR Xfinity Series, Race No. 33 – Ford Ecoboost 300

High Wear, High Drama on Tap at Homestead: As NASCAR crowns champions in its three national series this weekend, teams will be competing at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which has become one of the more high tire wear tracks on the circuit.  High wear results in a greater amount of fall-off in lap times as a run goes on.  That, in turn, brings in a driver’s ability to manage his tires and creates a climate for more comers and goers – drivers that work their tires harder early in a run vs. drivers that are easier on their tires and have more long run speed.  That situation leads to more passing throughout the field and, coupled with Homestead’s layout and progressive banking, creates a great environment for competitive racing.
    
“Homestead has quietly become one of the highest wear tracks that we race on in NASCAR,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing.  “We have a new tire set-up compared to last year that not only takes that into account, but also balances the lower downforce world in which we operate.  This is the same set-up we ran at Chicagoland to start to Cup playoffs, as Homestead and Chicagoland have traditionally been aligned in our tire lineup.  What we’ve done with this 2017 tire package is give the cars more grip with the compounds on both sides of the car, while staying with a multi-zone right-side to handle to loads and speeds we see at Homestead.  One other thing of note about this weekend, is the reduction of race sets for Cup teams compared to last year at Homestead.  Cup teams will have nine race sets in addition to the qualifying set they start the race on, as compared to 12 race sets plus one transferred practice set last year.  That will bring tire management into play on race day.”
 
Notes: While teams in all three NASCAR series in action at Homestead this weekend will run the same right-side tire code, teams in the Cup and Xfinity Series will run a different left-side code than those in the Truck Series. This is a different tire set-up than they ran at Homestead last year, though they did run this exact combination of left- and right-side tires at Chicagoland and Fontana earlier this season.

Compared to Homestead last year, this left-side tire code (D-4650) features a compound change to give the cars more grip. While the right-side tire code (D-4746) features an updated construction (to align with other speedways) and new compounds in both the two-inch inboard Endurance Zone and the 10-inch outboard Traction Zone (to enhance grip).

On all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Homestead and the air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.