NASCAR insider clarifies tire plans for Martinsville weekend

NASCAR will use just one tire compound in this Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, according to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

Teams will run the identical tire set-up as the November playoff race. Goodyear will use the option tire compound as the standard right-side tire, while the left-side tire will be a softer compound. Teams also ran this same tire setup in The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium last month.

“Martinsville is one of the most historical tracks we have in NASCAR,” said Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of global race tires, via Jayski.com. “It is also our first true short track we have on this year’s schedule, so teams will have to navigate the tight, concrete corners, coming off the relatively long, asphalt straightaways. The Cup cars having to go 500 laps is always a challenge, and the winner will have to combine speed, set-up and solid pit stops to get to victory lane.”

NASCAR settles on tire set-up for Martinsville

NASCAR and Goodyear have been experimenting with multiple tire compounds over the last calendar year. Earlier this month at Phoenix, each team had six primary sets of tires for the race and two sets of option tires. The option tire provides more pace to the car but wears off significantly faster than the primary tire.

The racing at Phoenix was arguably better than it’s been in years with the addition of the option tire, and teams having a choice. But that won’t be the case this weekend, nor is it expected to be again this season.

“No two different versions of tires this weekend and not expected to have teams choose among two versions (primary and an option) during a race again this year,” Pockrass wrote on X.

Pockrass further explained why NASCAR is shying away from bringing both tire compounds to racetracks: “From what I can tell, for the most part, the preference of the industry is to get to a point where they have tires that wear and let drivers managing the tires based on how they drive the track and when they pit be the determining factor rather than if they put on hards or softs.”