The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season begins now, so to speak.
There will be two days of tire testing Wednesday and Thursday as Goodyear continues to refine its tire combinations for the high-speed half-mile following drastic racing product changes ranging from traditional racing to extreme tire wear.
This change is largely believed to be a byproduct of temperatures, with the cooler weather discouraging the marriage of rubber to the track surface and creating the spring 2024 and fall 2025 races where a set could only last 30 to 50 laps when managed appropriately.
While these races have been largely well-received for creating a speed differential and a lot more contact, the general consensus is that there is probably a middle ground somewhere that isn’t as dependent on weather conditions.
The purpose of this test
General view
Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images
That’s what NASCAR and Goodyear hope to find out over the next two days.
“Competition officials have indicated that one of the goals of the test is to determine a tire configuration that promotes crash and emphasizes tire management, but without the excessive wear of the last Cup Series race on September 13. Another primary objective is to focus on a more temperature-neutral configuration, with tires that react the same way regardless of temperature variations.”
Testing is carried out by the following drivers and teams:
– Toyota n°23 23XI Racing; Pilot Bubba Wallace
– Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet No. 48; pilot Alex Bowman
– Ford RFK Racing n°60; pilot Ryan Preece
This test will also represent the first time the short track package will be equipped with the 750 horsepower tapered spacer, one of the new rules for the NextGen car next year, up from its current target of 670 horsepower.
After the Bristol test, NASCAR and Goodyear will also conduct a test at North Wilkesboro, where the sanctioning body will also consider making engineering changes to the car to continue improving the short track racing product.
When this car debuted in 2022, it significantly improved racing on intermediate tracks, but at the expense of short tracks and flat road courses, wherever there was only one line, due to the aerodynamic sensitivity of the following car.
NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell said last month there was a desire to try to take it a step further by trying some things besides increasing horsepower.
Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Photo by: Jonathan Bachman – Getty Images
“I think what you’ll see us do is we have the drivers, with Christopher Bell’s attorney and others, Joey Logano, talking about, ‘Hey! Let’s try some of these things.’ Work with 3 OEMs and Team Leaders or Competition Managers. Get some ideas together, go try them out in North Wilkesboro and see what happens.
Bell, for his part, says the Cup Series cars need to react closer to the Xfinity Series cars.
“I think they need to get the Cup aero map to match the Xfinity Series cars,” Bell told Motorsport.com last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. “That would be the best-case scenario, for the Cup cars to react like the Xfinity cars.
“I was a big proponent of going back to narrower tires, but after all the work Goodyear has done this year, the cars slide a lot now. We go to road courses and short tracks, and I can promise you, it’s slippery. At Martinsville and the Charlotte Road Course, we slide the car a lot and are overpowered by the current horsepower.
“I don’t know if it’s aerodynamic or mechanical, but I think it’s aerodynamic because we’re driving the car in a yaw like the Xfinity cars can and I think that’s a big part of the eye test – the way the Xfinity guys look like they’re ramming the cars. The Cup cars, even though we’re almost out of control, it doesn’t look like that on TV. I would love to get us closer to the Xfinity car.”
The
Bell agrees that this is the biggest problem, so how can we solve it?
“I don’t know,” he said, laughing. “We have to find a way to optimize that, too. For example, NASCAR can’t tell us to ‘put the nose down and raise the tail’ because that’s not how this car is optimal. We’ll always go back to a nose-up, tail-down attitude because that’s how the car was designed.”
“It’s worse in traffic. That’s why we can’t free the car in front of us. It hurts overtaking. We have to optimize the car with the nose down and the tail up, and whatever gets us there, that’s what we have to do.”
In addition to tires and aerodynamics, NASCAR will also test the new electrical control unit and data logger for next season – the McLaren TAG-510.
Brad Keselowski couldn’t answer what he wanted NASCAR to look at without knowing what they were willing to look at when asked.
“You have to be more specific for me to have a strong opinion, but I know the ECU plays a big role in this test and its success,” Keselowski said. “There are a lot of things that these tests will be important for.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. advocated eliminating NextGen entirely for short track racing.
The team leader’s point of view
So how do Cup Series crew chiefs envision getting to the spot Bell suggested? In short, team leaders like Bell’s shooter, Adam Stevens, don’t really know.
“I think everyone has an idea of what they want, but I don’t think anyone has an idea of what it will take, aerodynamically, to make that happen,” Stevens said. “I would definitely put myself in that category. We all want the car behind to not be at such a disadvantage to the lead car. How to achieve that, I haven’t spent the time or studied that. I can tell you that the people who have taken the time to do it over the years haven’t had much success anyway, so I also can’t tell you which widget we should try. If anyone knows what that widget is, it’s not me.”
Rudy Fugle, who fills this role for William Byron, fears it would be a costly undertaking to dismantle the car.
“My opinion on the aerodynamic side is quite complex,” Fugle said. “With the way the underbody is, the way the splitter is and the way the air flows to the louvers, I think it would be pretty expensive to do some of those things. To be honest with you, I haven’t heard of any of their projects…but there are definitely some things that I think could help, but they’re pretty large scale things in my opinion.
“We need to rethink some things. There are aerodynamicists smarter than me. I’m not one at all, so definitely smarter than me. Maybe they’re getting to a place I don’t know.”
Rudy Fugle, William Byron Crew Chief, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images
Chris Gayle said he wants to remove the cars’ shock absorbers and consider removing parts of the sealed underbody.
That said, everyone is excited to at least move the product forward, even incrementally with increasing power. Paul Wolfe, who is Joey Logano’s crew chief, said it wouldn’t make a big difference, but pairing the horsepower with more gains from Goodyear, and maybe an aerodynamic tweak here or there, it all starts to add up.
This has certainly been the case since this car debuted between 2022 and 2025.
“The horsepower issue has been on the radar for some time,” Wolfe said. “I’m excited about the steering. It’s good. I’m not aware of any of the aero aspects that have been talked about. We’re already on two different packages as far as the mile and a half versus the short track. We’ve run both packages on short tracks.
“It’s hard to say anything has progressed much on the aero side, but with all that being said we have to keep in mind that no change is going to be huge, it’s about piling on little changes here and there to make the racing better. I saw where some guys were saying ‘we’re not going to see anything from the 750’ but is it going to be night and day, no, but when it comes to managing and using your tires, these things, adding power is not going to make the situation worse. It’s going to make the wear worse, and that’s where we’re trying to go.
Wolfe said “we try to stack a bunch of little things” to increase entertainment, which is no different than what teams do when trying to find speed increases.
“I’m excited to see the 750 package and I don’t think it’s going to be any worse, and it should make things better,” Wolfe said. “We’ve done some good things with the tires this year. Goodyear has pushed the limits there. We’ve seen some good results there and I’m excited to continue on that path.”
“It’s a tough question, and I don’t know if we as a sport are always going to knock it out of the park, but it will continue to evolve and we’ve been going in the right direction and I’m excited to continue on that path as well.”
NASCAR said it has not yet determined the parameters and scope of the North Wilkesboro test, including what will be examined and the number of participants.
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