Goodyear could be forced to build different tires for Nationwide

[Schwartz Fan]

Goodyear could need to build different Nationwide tire in 2010
By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Monday, October 13, 2008


CONCORD, N.C. – Goodyear could be forced to build different tires for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and Nationwide series in 2010 when the Nationwide car of tomorrow is rolled out, a top official from the sanctioning body says.

Currently, Goodyear uses the same tire when both series run on the same weekend, even thought the Cup series is using a new-model car.

But NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said differences in the 2010 models for both series will be substantial, and that could mean a different tire for each.

“That’s been discussed,” Pemberton said. “We’ll see how that goes when Goodyear does their tire test on what things they have to change to make both cars happy.”

When the Nationwide car is introduced in 2010, it will have less horsepower and more downforce than the Cup version. NASCAR wants to make the cars “significantly different” for drivers, Pemberton said.

Some in the Nationwide Series have asked for different tires than the Cup series to help differentiate the series and make sure Cup drivers don’t simply use the Nationwide Series as a test bed.

“We need to have these cars drive significantly different, whether it’s the total downforce or not,” Pemberton said. “The goal there is, the teams from the Cup series cannot walk over to the next garage area and plug in four springs and shocks and swaybars and dominate on a particular day.

“If they want to play in both garage areas, that’s fine, but they need to work just as hard on their setups in the Nationwide Series and not be able to just plug everything they’ve learned from another series.”


Goodyear could need to build different Nationwide tire in 2010 - Nationwide Series | SceneDaily.com - NASCAR News