From handling to speed, choosing the right tires and preparing them properly can give a NASCAR team an advantage in many ways. Yet many fans give the tires little thought. Here are ten things you may not have known about the tires used by your favorite team:
1. Every Goodyear Eagle racing tire for NASCAR’s top three tiers is made by hand. While there are limits to how many tires teams are allowed each week, this still adds up to more than 100,000 handmade tires each season.
2. Goodyear, with help from a team of engineers and scientists, formulates a tire compound specifically for each track. In most cases, even the left side tires and the right side tires are made from a different combination of rubber and polymers. Some similar tracks may use the same compound, but each one has been tested and approved for the track’s unique racing surface.
3. Because Sprint Cup cars don’t run in the rain, their tires don’t have tread. Smooth tires offer maximum contact with the asphalt, increasing the size of the tire’s footprint. This provides more traction and grip than a treaded tire.
4. Each tire is barcoded and microchipped, allowing teams and officials to easily see the date and time it was manufactured. This is important because tires from different batches can be slightly different sizes. Crew attempt to match tires that are as similar as possible to make sets.
5. With the exception of a few short tracks — including last week at Martinsville — and the road course races, NASCAR requires inner liners in all four tires. This safety feature allows the driver a chance to reach pit road after an issue develops.
6. Teams often start their runs on very low air pressure, which offers more grip later in the run when the pressure builds. At some tracks, teams may keep air pressures in the single digits, especially on the left side. Although NASCAR no longer mandates a minimum air pressure, Goodyear still makes a recommendation. Last week at Martinsville, Goodyear’s minimum recommended inflation is 10 psi in both left side tires, 22 psi in the right rear and 23 psi in the right front.
7. NASCAR tires aren’t inflated with typical air. Instead, teams use nitrogen because it is a dry air that is stable even in high heat. Standard air expands a lot more than nitrogen when heated, and this would negatively affect handling and performance.
8. All left side tires are smaller than those used on the right, unless they’re running at a road course. While the difference may not even be noticeable to the untrained eye, the slightly larger right side tires make it easier to turn left. This aids handling and helps the driver hold his line through the corners.
9. In the corners, right side tires must support around 4,000 pounds of load. This is more than four times the load experienced by the left side tires..
10. Most the the tires used are known as “sticker tires.” This simply means they are new, and have never been run before. The name comes from the large sticker placed on the tire surface when it comes from the plant. This sticker is quickly worn away when the tire hits the track. Last fall, Jamie McMurray won the Martinsville pole on scuffs, tires that have a few laps on them and have been allowed to heat up and then cool.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup series takes Sunday off this week, but will return to the track next weekend in Texas. Last season, both Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson scored wins in the Lonestar State.