The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continue on Sunday with a trip to World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis, Missouri. This track is new to the playoffs, and it features a new tire combination.
According to a press release from Goodyear, the left- and right-side tires are new to World Wide Technology Raceway, but they are not new to the Cup Series. This combination debuted during the August weekend at Iowa Speedway, which featured William Byron scoring his second win of the season.
Three drivers have used this particular tire combination at World Wide Technology Raceway. Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Larson took part in a Goodyear test session in June while representing NASCAR's three OEM partners.
"Despite being 1.25 miles in length, we treat World Wide Technology Raceway more like an intermediate track," said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager.
"The Goodyear Racing Eagle tires we have chosen for the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend have already been tested here, and raced at Iowa Speedway."
While the Cup Series teams have experience with this particular tire combination, its introduction will still create a new hurdle for them to overcome as the playoffs continue. The crew chiefs, engineers, and drivers will all have to think about other variables while trying to pursue the all-important points and win.
"I think anytime you change the tire at a race track, it definitely changes your approach," defending WWT Raceway winner Austin Cindric told AltDriver. "Just because so much is dominated by...with the cars and how I drive and what my priorities are, like lane usage and follow off, all these types of things are very much dominated by the characteristics of a tire. And my team's decisions are dominated by those types of things.
"So going to New Hampshire with a new tire, going to Bristol with a new right side tire, they haven't decided on the tire for Martinsville, they haven't decided on the tire for Phoenix. So there's a lot of variables with that.
"Even the Roval this year, a new tire for all the road courses, and that'll be applied at Charlotte. So I'd say those are usually the bigger variables you can throw at a race track."
While the Cup Series playoffs will continue with this new tire combination at a new Round of 16 track, the Xfinity Series teams will deal with their own uncertainty.
This weekend marks the first time since the 2010 season that the series has competed at the 1.25-mile track. The Xfinity teams will now return to WWT Raceway while closing out the regular season. This race will finalize the 12-driver playoff field. Eight drivers have locked up spots with wins. One has locked up a spot on points. Three spots remain.
According to Goodyear, the Xfinity teams have used this weekend's tire combination at a previous track. They took it to Phoenix Raceway in March as Aric Almirola won. Craftsman Truck Series teams also used this tire combination in last season's race at WWT Raceway.
Only three active Xfinity drivers have experience at this track heading into the regular-season finale. Justin Allgaier finished third behind Brad Keselowski and Mike Bliss in 2010 while Jeremy Clements finished 10th and Matt DiBenedetto finished 24th.