Charlotte Motor Speedway hummed with purpose Tuesday as Goodyear rolled into NASCAR’s backyard, bringing Cup Series and Xfinity Series teams together for a tire test that’s less about revolution and more about refinement.
With the 1.5-mile oval under their wheels, drivers like William Byron, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Briscoe chased data to tune their setups for intermediate tracks, while Xfinity runners like Austin Hill grappled with grip gaps.
It’s the second Cup test in eight days—Phoenix hit on March 10—and Goodyear’s hunting a baseline that’ll carry through spring’s mile-and-a-half slugfests, from Homestead-Miami this Sunday to Kansas in May.
The push for softer tires—more grip, quicker wear—has jazzed up short tracks like Bristol, but Charlotte’s test was about threading the needle: enough fall-off to keep racing spicy without blowing tires into next week.
Cup Stars Weigh In: Tires on the Edge
Daytona 500 king William Byron, steering Hendrick’s No. 24, joined Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe in Cup’s three-team lineup. After Vegas—where tires corded and some blew when balances went sideways—Byron’s take was clear: Goodyear’s got it dialed. “I feel like the tire on the intermediate actually falls off pretty good,” he said post-session. “Sure, it could fall off more, but we’re kind of at the limit of blowing tires or cording tires, and I think, honestly, the tires at Vegas were going down to the cords if your balance was off, and some guys blew tires as we ran laps. So I feel like the intermediate racing has been really good, and honestly, I don’t think we need to touch it. Honestly, I think it’s really just a weather thing trying to get hotter races where it’s slicker, but you know, there’s plenty of cautions on intermediates right now, and it seems like there’s plenty of racing going on, so I think the tire’s in a good spot.”
Byron’s not wrong—Vegas had 32 lead changes, nine cautions, and tire wear that bit if you pushed too hard. His No. 24 crew used Tuesday to tweak, not overhaul, banking laps on a “control” tire—a rare chance to build data without Next Gen’s tight testing leash. For this crowd, who remember when tire tests were as common as pit stops, it’s a throwback luxury: real track time, real feedback, no sim shortcuts.
Blaney, the 2023 champ, nodded along but craved more throttle dance—a lift here, a creep there—to spice up the mile-and-a-half game. “It puts Goodyear in a tough spot, and I try to put myself in Goodyear’s shoes, and I don’t want their job because they have a really tough job of manufacturing these tires that we all are saying that we want,” he said as Charlotte’s day wound down. “I don’t know how to make these things. Like, it’s easy to say, yeah, go softer, go softer, go softer. Well, you go softer, and now you have a risk of people failing tires, and you wreck. So it’s like, what is that fine line of a tire that does wear but doesn’t blow out … and you don’t really get a lot of shots at it, right? You have some tires here, and then you show up at the race weekend with them. So it’s a tough job, but really, I just look for off-throttle time. How do you get the tire to be slick enough where you have to bail out of the gas and have to creep back to it? I think that’s just what we need on the mile-and-a-halfs, and they’re getting there. I mean, they’ve made huge improvements the last few years, and I applaud them for that, so hopefully, we can continue to keep going with them.”
Blaney’s point hits home—Goodyear’s walked a tightrope since softer tires juiced short tracks, but intermediates demand finesse. At 180 mph through Charlotte’s banking, a tire too soft is a wreck waiting to happen. His Penske No. 12 lapped alongside Byron’s, chasing that sweet spot where wear forces decisions, not disasters. It’s a nod to NASCAR’s old soul—less grip, more skill—that this demographic craves.
Xfinity’s Grip Struggle and Cup’s Edge
Xfinity’s trio—Haas Factory Team’s Sheldon Creed, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola, and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill—shared Tuesday’s asphalt, their lone test day. Unlike Cup’s structured split, both series ran together, a mash-up that showcased the cars’ DNA divide. Hill, fourth in Xfinity points, felt it hard: “The Cup cars just have so much more grip than the Xfinity cars do,” he said. “We have low downforce, low sideforce, so we can run some decent lap times for the first five laps, and then we fall off really hard, and it looked like the Cup cars didn’t really fall off much. So yeah, there were a few times they got to me, they blew my doors off, and when they got by me, and I got behind them, it was the weirdest thing because their cars, just the way the diffuser works and everything, the buffer that they have, that those cars have, it was causing my car to do some weird stuff, like even down the straightaway. It was kind of buffering the car around, so that was kind of interesting — something that I’ve never felt before with having a Cup car out there versus an Xfinity car. But all in all, I mean, the biggest thing, those Cup cars just have so much more grip in the corner, and we’re about the same speed down the straightaway. They just can get through the corner way faster than us.”
Hill’s No. 21 Chevy danced a different tune—quick early, then sliding as tires faded, while Cup’s beasts clung tighter. The diffuser wake rattling his Xfinity ride? A physics lesson in real time—Cup’s aero package, beefier downforce, and tire grip leave Xfinity in the dust on corner exit. For fans who’ve tracked both series since the Busch days, it’s a stark reminder: Xfinity’s a proving ground, but Cup’s the big leagues.
Briscoe’s New Groove and Team Gains
For Chase Briscoe, Tuesday doubled as a chemistry lab with his new Joe Gibbs Racing digs. After four years at Stewart-Haas, the No. 19 Toyota Camry’s a different beast, and he’s molding his style to fit. “Yeah, it’s a tire test, but I’m almost just more trying to get more and more acclimated with the JGR cars and just how different they drive,” he said. “You know, I’ve had to change my driving style a ton over the course of the last two or three weeks, just trying to better suit how their cars are set up. So, for me, that was a big focus today. It was nice coming off of another mile-and-a-half just two days ago.”
Briscoe’s laps weren’t just about Goodyear—they were about syncing with crew chief James Small, fresh off Vegas’ 17th-place finish. Every corner was a chance to gel, tweak, and prep for Homestead’s heat this Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1). Meanwhile, Almirola’s No. 19 Xfinity Supra circling nearby added a quirky twist—two 19s, two series, one track.
