This week’s Goodyear tire
test at the newly repaved Kansas Speedway is now complete, with a Goodyear
spokesman saying the company now has the information it needs to finalize a tire
compound for the track’s NASCAR race weekend in October.
Nine NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series teams participated in the test on Tuesday and Wednesday; the No. 2
Penske Racing Dodge with driver Brad Keselowski, the No. 9 Richard Petty
Motorsports Ford with Marcos Ambrose, the No. 17 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford with
Matt Kenseth, the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Joey Logano, the No.
27 Richard Childress Racing Chevy with Paul Menard, The No. 42 Chip Ganassi
Racing Chevy with Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 55 Toyota with Mark Martin, the No. 78 Furniture
Row Racing Chevy with Regan Smith and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy
with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt was uninjured in a
crash early in Wednesday’s final session, but was forced to withdraw.
Greg Stucker, Goodyear's
Director of Race Tires, expressed happiness with the test, saying, "After
two days of testing at Kansas, we saw what was expected of a newly repaved
track -- smooth, black asphalt and a considerable amount of grip. It took about
a half-day of running with the nine cars involved in the test, but the track
took rubber nicely and a narrow groove developed. We expect that groove to
widen out during the race weekend.
“The recently-raced Michigan
tire package was our 'control' for the test, with several other options in that
compound range evaluated. That proved to be the correct choice based upon tire
temperatures, wear and driver comments, and I'd say it is currently the leading
candidate for our Kansas race tire."
NASCAR will return to Kansas for its Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series race weekend on October
Just a quick note Dave--I was at the the tire test this week in the stands and did make an observation that Kyle Busch was also running a few laps in the 20 car. I recognized his voice on the scanner and he also had tweeted a picture on Tuesday of the speedway. Joey was driving the car on Tuesday, but Kyle was in the car for a while on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought it was worth a mention since nobody seemed to notice.
I had my 4 year old son with me on Wednesday morning while the 88 car was working on its 30-lap run for Goodyear and of course as soon as he needed to use the little men's room, 20 steps away from the stands Dale popped his tire. There were marks from the bottom of the track in turn one straight up to the entrance of 2 and marks all the way down the SAFER barrier to the start of the backstretch. Looks like it must have been a heck of a hit. Glad he's okay.