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NASCAR: Different Tire Compound To Be Tested At KY
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Goodyear officials will look to do more than verifying the tire package for this year's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway when they hold a two-day test Tuesday and Wednesday at the 1.5-mile track.
"We've also got some things to try to actually promote a little more wear on a repaved surface, which is something we haven't been able to do," Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear, told NASCAR.com. "The guys have kind of taken a different approach on the compound formulation to see if we can't actually generate some wear on what we project to be a fairly smooth surface."
Kentucky Speedway will host the Quaker State 400 on Saturday, July 8 and will be preceded by NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (July 6) and XFINITY Series (July 7) races.
The 1.5-mile track was repaved before last year's tripleheader; a portion of the asphalt has since been replaced.
"From my understanding, they re-did the top two inches of it; they didn't go down and take up everything, they put a new top coat on," Stucker said of the changes. "We're going to go there with the same package that we raced last year. At the same time, we feel like that was probably conservative....We admit it was probably conservative but that's OK, it was a repave and I'd rather be that way than not."
"So we'll go back and see how different the surface is—it's supposed to be the same (asphalt) mix. We're going to verify that," Stucker continued.
Teams from Chip Ganassi Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Furniture Row Racing are scheduled to take part in the test. Drivers expected to be on hand are Jamie McMurray (CGR), Austin Dillon (RCR), Kurt Busch (SHR) and Erik Jones (FRR).
Two tire tests have been held this season, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A test at Michigan was postponed due to weather and has been rescheduled for July 10-11. Because of the date change, the MIS test will now be dealing with potential '18 changes rather than focused on this year's races at the 2-mile track.
"We've also got some things to try to actually promote a little more wear on a repaved surface, which is something we haven't been able to do," Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear, told NASCAR.com. "The guys have kind of taken a different approach on the compound formulation to see if we can't actually generate some wear on what we project to be a fairly smooth surface."
Kentucky Speedway will host the Quaker State 400 on Saturday, July 8 and will be preceded by NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (July 6) and XFINITY Series (July 7) races.
The 1.5-mile track was repaved before last year's tripleheader; a portion of the asphalt has since been replaced.
"From my understanding, they re-did the top two inches of it; they didn't go down and take up everything, they put a new top coat on," Stucker said of the changes. "We're going to go there with the same package that we raced last year. At the same time, we feel like that was probably conservative....We admit it was probably conservative but that's OK, it was a repave and I'd rather be that way than not."
"So we'll go back and see how different the surface is—it's supposed to be the same (asphalt) mix. We're going to verify that," Stucker continued.
Teams from Chip Ganassi Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Furniture Row Racing are scheduled to take part in the test. Drivers expected to be on hand are Jamie McMurray (CGR), Austin Dillon (RCR), Kurt Busch (SHR) and Erik Jones (FRR).
Two tire tests have been held this season, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A test at Michigan was postponed due to weather and has been rescheduled for July 10-11. Because of the date change, the MIS test will now be dealing with potential '18 changes rather than focused on this year's races at the 2-mile track.
