Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Race No. 28 – ISM Connect 300
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Race No. 17 – UNOH 175
Flat Track, Raised Stakes in New Hampshire: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup teams will go to great measures to get grip on the relatively flat New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend, much like the 16 playoff teams will try to get a grip on their path forward.
The lack of banking on the 1.058-mile oval doesn’t leave much for teams to lean on over on the right-side of the car, leading teams to lower their left-side tire pressures to gain grip. Many teams will likely go significantly below Goodyear’s recommended 12 psi for the left-side tires. Goodyear has helped teams with grip at New Hampshire by bringing tread compounds on both sides of the car that are among the top-three most tractive in the 2017 tire lineup.
“Finding grip is really at a premium at Loudon,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “This track presents a couple challenges in that pursuit of grip — it is basically a short track and there is a lack of banking. While we recommend 12 pounds of air in the left-side tires, we realize that teams will look to go below that to gain grip. The danger in that, specifically early in a run when the pressures are at their lowest, is that they will over-deflect the sidewall, inflicting damage that will lead to carcass fatigue and, eventually, air loss. What we can do to help the teams with grip is bring the most tractive tread compounds that we can to Loudon, and we’ve done that.”
Notes: Teams in both the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series will run the the same combination of left- and right-side tires that Cup and Xfinity teams ran at this track in July.
The teams have run this left-side tire (D-4564) at New Hampshire since 2012 and this right-side tire (D-4706) since 2016. New Hampshire is the only track at which teams in either of these series will run these two tire codes. As on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at New Hampshire.
Upcoming Tire Test: Goodyear will hold a tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway next Tuesday (September 26). Drivers scheduled to participate in the test are Ty Dillon and Erik Jones.
