Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Race No. 26 – Federated Auto Parts 400
NASCAR Xfinity Series, Race No. 25 – Virginia529 College Savings 250
High Tire Wear Leads to Great Racing at Richmond: Coming off a race at Darlington Raceway, the NASCAR circuit visits another high tire wear track in Richmond Raceway this week.
Goodyear brings a tire combination to Richmond that addresses that and will rubber-in the race track. That, of course, leads to multiple racing grooves. The other interesting thing about Richmond is that while it has traditionally lined up with other tracks of similar length – New Hampshire and Phoenix – it requires a little more stagger (difference in height between the shorter left-side and taller right-side tires) being built into the tire set-up to help the cars turn in the corners.
“Richmond is a tricky track, not only for drivers and teams, but also for Goodyear,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “With the wear characteristics of the track surface, our goal when deciding on a tire set-up was to come up with a tread compound that lays down rubber. With the tire recommendation we’ve brought to Richmond the last couple seasons, we’ve been able to do that, which then creates multiple lines and makes it incumbent on teams to stay on top of their set-ups and drivers to find the fastest line, which will change over the course of the race.”
Notes: Teams in both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series will run the same Goodyear tire codes at Richmond this week, the same combination of left- and right-side tires these teams ran earlier this season and twice last season at Richmond. This is the only track at which teams in these two series will run these tire codes (Camping World Truck Teams ran this same tire set-up at Gateway).
As on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, teams will not run liners in their tires at Richmond.
