By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
The abrasive surface of Atlanta Motor Speedway can provide a challenge for Goodyear, but the organization is ready for the race weekend.
Greg Stucker, director of racing for Goodyear, sat down with Kickin’ the Tires before cars hit the 1.54-mile facility on Friday.
According to Stucker, Goodyear is cognizant of the worn-out abrasive surface at Atlanta. When creating a tire, the organization knows that the tire design has to be approached differently. In recent years, Goodyear has instituted multi-zoned technology in recent years to help with the balance of grip and endurance.
“You have two things: when you have a worn surface, it wears tires very quickly and heavily, but it also lacks a lot of grip. Those two things usually oppose one another. If you have a tire compound that provides grip, it will also where quickly,” Stucker stated.
“Our multi-zone technology enables us to put a little bit harder compound in our endurance zone, the inside of the tire, that makes that tire very durable for the heat and the loads that we see here at Atlanta because it is still a very fast race track.
“You have to be very cognizance of that, but then we are able to put a softer compound on the outboard three-quarters of the tire which provides the grip that we need.”
The multi-zoned tire provides the best compromise for teams to have the grip and the durable compound needed to perform at the highest standard.
Over the off-season, Atlanta Motor Speedway patched 12 to 15 areas of the racing surface, but is prepared for over 950 miles of racing. From a tire perspective, there is no grave concern from Goodyear about the patch work.
“Not greatly because they are so small,” Stucker stated. “If it was a much larger patch extending all the way through a corner, then that creates an issue for everybody because you got differences in asphalt in the same location. With the small area it doesn’t affect us at all.”
In 2017, track officials announced that the racing surface would be repaved after 20 years. After persistent pleas from drivers across all three national series, the track decided to postpone the resurfacing and will re-evaluate after this weekend.
From a tire perspective, a repave provides a new unique challenge for Goodyear to balance the grip and loads on the tire. Goodyear has to design a tire that has tons of grip, can be durable for the tire loads and speed, and how to make tires have some wear.
“You just have a completely different challenge. You will have a very quick race track which means lots of loads and speed. You have to design for that. You are going to go from a surface that wears tires very quickly to surface that wears tires hardly at all because that happens when you go to repave.
“The asphalt is smooth. There isn’t big enough gaps between the aggregate so it doesn’t grind the rubber off the race track. We have to manage all that. We have to come with a completely different compound configuration, something that will resist the heat and generate wear itself,” Stucker said.
In 2017, NASCAR, Goodyear and race tracks have built a committee that looks at track surfaces across the schedule. In the committee meetings, things are shared throughout about what is being considered. Goodyear and AMS have had ongoing conversations about the future of the repave.
“We have good communication with the race track and NASCAR. There is a whole committee now that was started last year that looks at track surfaces. Any time there is things being considered at any race track that’s kinda shared throughout the industry that batter.
“We are one of those because of the tires. We have been with conversation with the folks at Atlanta for a number of years. We have known what their process is; that they have been thinking about a repave then they held off. We will stay in the loop for them,” Stucker continued.
Goodyear will talk to the track and see what aggregate the track will use for the repave, as well as, look back at recent repaves at Kentucky Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway to see if anything similar was done.
NASCAR has scheduled a tire test at AMS in August. If AMS decides to go forward with a repave, Goodyear has a date set. With the August date, Goodyear will have enough time to return to AMS, if needed.
“We have a test coming up in August, if they do repave, we already have time scheduled. That August date would give us some time if we do need to come back again before next year’s race. We will stay in the loop with them understanding what exactly, if anything, they are going to do,” Stucker stated.
Teams in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be allotted four sets for practice, one set for qualifying/start of race and 11 sets for the race; NASCAR XFINITY Series will be allotted seven sets for the event; and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be allotted six sets for the weekend.