Goodyear Fast Facts — Watkins Glen

NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 25 – 90 laps / 221 miles

Watkins Glen International (2.454-mile road course) – Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Fast Facts for August 20-21, 2022

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Road Course Radials

Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 6 sets for the race

     (5 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)

Tire Codes: Left-Front/Right-Rear: D-5112; Right-Front/Left-Rear: D-5113

Tire Circumference: 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 26 psi; Right Front — 24 psi;

     Left Rear — 21 psi; Right Rear — 21 psi

Storyline – Grip enhancement for Cup teams at Watkins Glen: Goodyear held a tire test at Watkins Glen International in late May and confirmed this weekend’s tire set-up, giving teams an enhancement in grip over what has been run at the New York-based track in the past.  Watkins Glen is a high speed road course, but is now aligned with Circuit of The Americas, Road America and Indianapolis Motor Speedway instead of having its own, unique tire set-up.

     As a reminder, like at recent road course races at Road America and Indianapolis, Cup teams will be running the same tire on all four corners of the car, although there will be two Goodyear tire codes – one on left-front and right-rear tire positions and one on the right-front and left-rear.  This allows Goodyear to build each distinct code and decorate the outboard sidewall while having the tread run directionally to handle the different stresses asked of it — hard braking into the corners and hard acceleration off the corners.

     “With this Next Gen car, with the bigger, wider tire, we’ve been able to go a little ‘softer’ with our tread compounds almost across the board,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing.  “When we had just the two road courses on the Cup schedule – those being Watkins Glen and Sonoma – both tracks were dramatically different and required distinct tires.  Now, with six road courses on the 2022 schedule, Sonoma is still on its own due to it being much more technical, but Watkins Glen falls more into line with some of the other tracks.  The Glen is on the high-speed end of the scale among the road courses, but this 18-inch bead diameter tire – which is about an inch-and-a-half wider than the previous, 15-inch tire – has enabled us to give the teams a good step up in grip this weekend.”

Notes – Cup teams on Road America/Indianapolis tire set-up at Watkins Glen: Having moved to an 18-inch bead diameter tire for 2022, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen this week . . . these are the same two tire codes Cup teams ran at Road America and Indianapolis last month . . . these teams also ran the D-5112 right-side tire code on all four tire positions at COTA in March . . . Goodyear held a tire test at Watkins Glen on May 24-25 . . . teams (drivers) participating in that test were the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (William Byron), RFK Racing Ford (Chris Buescher) and Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Martin Truex Jr.) and . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires in 2022.

Wet Weather Tires – New size and new tread pattern for Cup in ‘22: Goodyear will bring its completely redesigned wet weather radial tire to the road course at Watkins Glen for the NASCAR Cup cars . . . Cup teams will be allowed 1 set of wets for practice, 1 set for qualifying and up to 6 sets for the race (5 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying) . . . in addition to moving from a 15-inch to an 18-inch bead diameter tire, this wet weather tire has a new tread pattern, based on Goodyear’s Eagle Supercar 3 consumer tire . . . this tire was tested at Goodyear’s facility in San Angelo, Texas in 2021 . . . NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at COTA in May 2021 (15-inch version) . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires, the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.

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GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES

NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 22 – 82 laps / 201 miles

Watkins Glen International (2.454-mile road course) – Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Fast Facts for August 20, 2022

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Road Course Radials

Set limits: Xfinity: 5 sets for the event

Tire Code: D-6122 (same on all four tire positions)

Tire Circumference: 2,240 mm (88.19 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 26 psi; Right Front — 24 psi;

     Left Rear — 21 psi; Right Rear — 21 psi

Notes – Fifth race on this road course tire for Xfinity teams: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Xfinity Series teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Watkins Glen this week . . . Xfinity will run the same tire on all four positions at Watkins Glen . . . this tire debuted at COTA in March and was subsequently run at Portland, Road America and Indianapolis . . . as on all NASCAR road courses, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Watkins Glen.

Wet Weather Tires – White-lettered tires on hand: Goodyear will bring its 15-inch wet weather radials to the road course at Watkins Glen for use by Xfinity Series teams, should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant . . . teams will have 5 sets of wets available for the event, with a maximum of 4 sets for the race . . . Xfinity teams last ran in wet conditions at Portland in June . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires, the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.

Follow us on Twitter: @GoodyearRacing.

Goodyear Racing PR