The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season begins now in a manner of speaking.<\/p>\n
There will be two days of tire testing on Wednesday and Thursday for Goodyear to continue refining its tire combinations for the high-speed half-mile following drastic racing product swings that range from traditional racing to extreme tire wear.<\/p>\n
The swing is largely believed to be a byproduct of temperatures, with cooler weather discouraging the rubber marrying to the track surface and creating the spring 2024 and fall 2025 races where a set could only last 30-50 laps when managed appropriately.<\/p>\n
While those races have been largely well-received for creating speed differential, and a lot more contact, the general consensus is that there is probably a middle ground somewhere that isn\u2019t as dependent on weather conditions.<\/p>\n
That is what NASCAR and Goodyear hope to figure out over the next two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompetition officials indicated that one of the test\u2019s objectives is to determine a tire setup that promotes fall-off and an emphasis on tire management, but without the excessive wear from the Cup Series\u2019 most recent race on Sept. 13. Another prime goal is to zero in on a setup that\u2019s more temperature neutral, with tires that react the same regardless of any swings in temps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conducting the tests are the following drivers and teams:<\/p>\n
\u2013 No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota; driver Bubba Wallace
\u2013 No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet; driver Alex Bowman
\u2013 No. 60 RFK Racing Ford; driver Ryan Preece<\/p>\n
This test will also represent the first time the short track package has been outfitted with the 750 horsepower tapered spacer, one of the new rules for the NextGen car next year, up from its current 670 HP target.<\/p>\n
After the Bristol test, NASCAR and Goodyear will also conduct a test of some kind at North Wilkesboro, where the Sanctioning Body will also consider making technical changes to the car to continue improving the short track racing product.<\/p>\n
When this car first debuted in 2022, it considerably improved racing on the intermediate tracks, but at the expense of flat short tracks and road courses, anywhere that had just one line, due to how aero sensitive the trailing car is.<\/p>\n
NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell said last month that there is a willingness to try to take an additional swing at trying some things in addition to the horsepower increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what you\u2019ll see us do is, we got the drivers, with the counsel from Christopher Bell and others, Joey Logano, talking about, \u2018Hey! Let\u2019s try some of these things.\u2019 Working with 3 of the OEM manufacturers and crew chiefs or Heads of Competition. Putting some ideas together, going and trying it at North Wilkesboro and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell, for his part, says the Cup Series cars need to react closer to the Xfinity Series cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they need to get the Cup aero map to match the Xfinity Series cars,\u201d Bell told Motorsport.com last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. \u201cThat would be the best case scenario, to get the Cup cars to react like the Xfinity cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a big advocate of going back to narrower tires, but after all the work Goodyear has put in this year, the cars are sliding around a lot now. We go to road courses and short tracks, and I can promise you, it is slippery. At Martinsville, and the Charlotte Road Course, we are sliding the car around a lot and are overpowered with the current horsepower.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s aero or mechanical, but I think it\u2019s aero because we drive the car in yaw like the Xfinity cars can and I think that\u2019s a big part of the eye test — the way the Xfinity guys look like they are hustling the cars. Cup cars, even though we are close to out of control, it doesn\u2019t look like it on TV. I would love to get us closer to the Xfinity car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Xfinity Car is nose down and tail up, but the Cup car makes its downforce from the rear with the help of the diffuser so it\u2019s tail down and nose up.<\/p>\n
Bell agrees that is the biggest problem, so how do we fix that?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cWe need to find a way to optimize with that too. Like, NASCAR can\u2019t tell us \u2018drop the nose and raise the tail\u2019 because that\u2019s not how this car is optimal. We\u2019ll always evolve back to nose up and tail down attitude because that\u2019s how the car was designed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s worse in traffic. This is why we can\u2019t get the car in front of us loose. This hurts passing. We need to optimize the car with the nose down and the tail up, and whatever gets us there, that\u2019s what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the tires and aerodynamics, NASCAR will also be testing the new Electric Control Unit and Data Logger for next season \u2013 the McLaren TAG-510.<\/p>\n
Brad Keselowski couldn\u2019t answer what he wants NASCAR to look at without knowing what they were open to looking at when asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be more specific for me to have a strong opinion but I know the ECU is a big part of that test and getting that right,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cThere are a lot of things that those tests will be important for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has advocated striping the NextGen down entirely for short track races.<\/p>\n
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So how do Cup Series crew chiefs plan on getting to the place Bell suggested? In short, crew chiefs like Bell\u2019s shot caller, Adam Stevens, doesn\u2019t really know.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone has a handle on what they want to happen but I don\u2019t think anybody has a handle on what it\u2019s going to take, aerodynamically to make that happen,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cI would certainly put myself in that category. We all want the trailing car to not be at such a disadvantage to the leading car. How to make that happen, I have not put any time or study into that. I can tell you the people that have taken the time to over the years, haven\u2019t had much success anyway so I can\u2019t tell you what widget we need to try either. If anyone knows what that widget is, it isn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudy Fugle, who serves in that role for William Byron, worries that it would be an expensive endeavor to even strip the car down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion on the aero side of it is pretty complex,\u201d Fugle said. \u201cWith the way the underbody and 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 this stuff. I haven\u2019t heard of any of their plans to be honest with you \u2026 but there are definitely some things that I think could help but they are pretty large-scale things in my opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have to be a redesign of some things. There are some smarter aerodynamicists out there than me. I’m not one at all, so definitely smarter than me. Maybe they’re getting somewhere that I don’t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Gayle said he wants to get the cars off the shocks and look at removing parts of the sealed underbody.<\/p>\n
With all of that said, everyone is excited for at least moving the product forward, even incrementally with the horsepower increase. Paul Wolfe, who serves as crew chief for Joey Logano, said it\u2019s not going to be a big difference but pairing the horsepower with more gains from Goodyear, and maybe an aero tweak here or there, all start to add up.<\/p>\n
That has certainly been the case from where this car started in 2022 to 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horsepower thing has been on the radar for a while,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cI\u2019m excited for the direction. That\u2019s good. I\u2019m not aware of any of the aero stuff that\u2019s been talked about. We\u2019re already on two different packages when it comes to mile and a half versus short track. We\u2019ve run both packages on short tracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say anything has been a big more mover on the aero side but with all this being said, we need to keep in mind that not one change is going to be huge, it\u2019s about stacking little changes here and there to make the racing better. I saw where some guys said \u2018were not going to see anything out of the 750\u2019 but is it going to be night and day, no, but when it comes to managing and using your tires, those things, adding horsepower isn\u2019t going to make it worse. It\u2019s going to make the wear worse, which is where we\u2019re trying to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolfe said \u2018we are trying to stack a bunch of little things\u2019 to make the entertainment increases, which is no different than what teams do in trying to find speed increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to see the 750 package and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be worse, and it should directionally make things better,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done some good things with tires this year. Goodyear has pushed the boundary there. We\u2019ve seen good results there and I\u2019m excited to continue down that path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tough one, and I don\u2019t know that we as a sport are always going to knock it out of the park there, but it will continue to evolve and we\u2019ve gone in the right directions and I\u2019m excited to continue down that path as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASCAR said it hasn’t yet determined the parameters and scope of the North Wilkesboro test, including what will be examined and how many participants.<\/p>\n
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