Goodyear makes new tire choices for "high tire wear" at Darlington

“The ‘old,’ high-wear Darlington is back,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “For many years, Darlington had the most abrasive track surface on the circuit, but that all changed about 10 years ago when it was repaved. 

“Slowly, over the past decade, the surface has become more and more abrasive and harder on tires again. Going to Darlington now, with its throwback theme, seems highly appropriate now that we are back to a high tire wear/tire management race-style race that always seems to produce a great show for the fans.”

Both the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series teams will see new left and right-side tire choices this weekend.

Compared to what teams in both series ran last year, the left-side tire features a construction update to align it with what is run at other speedways, while the right-side tire features a compound change to give the cars more grip.

While this is the first time NASCAR teams have run this left-side tire code, teams in both of the series did run this right-side code at Charlotte in May. The tire choice came out of a Goodyear test at Darlington on June 5-6, which included drivers Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and Daniel Suarez.

Since its most recent repave in 2007, Darlington has slowly returned to its historical status as a high tire wear track.  The Cup race tire set limit at Darlington is 13 sets, the highest of any track in the series.

As part of the official NASCAR “Throwback weekend,” the tires run at this weekend’s races will feature different sidewall markings – a white, stencil-look Goodyear Eagle design that harkens back to the early 1990s.