AVONDALE, Ariz. — The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season featured several new tire setups as Goodyear pushed to deliver more tire wear. The drivers appreciated this work; they just hope they will have fewer curve balls in 2026.
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They don't want Goodyear to just call it good and stop searching for more falloff. The drivers just hope that they find a strong setup in the near future so that they can once again begin building their notebooks for specific tracks.
"Goodyear's done an amazing job this year of digging in deep and finding softer tires and more fall-off," Michael McDowell told FanBuzz at Phoenix Raceway. "And I think they've done an incredible job. That's what we wanted. And there's still work to do, but I feel like we are way further ahead today than we have been in the past when we've had different conversations.
"So I think that the collaboration between NASCAR and the drivers and Goodyear has been incredible. I hope that once we get closer to where everybody's like, 'Hey, this is it, and this is really the level we need,' that the tires will become a little bit more common. Because if you come to Phoenix every year and it's a different tire, it's hard to build what you need in a setup and feel."
Many tracks on the NASCAR schedule featured new setups, including those in the playoffs. Martinsville, Kansas, Gateway, Iowa, Dover, Michigan, Bristol, the Roval, Phoenix (spring), North Wilkesboro, and Phoenix (championship) all had different tire combinations than past seasons.
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— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 4, 2025
"My God," Austin Cindric said. "I mean, this year — talk about just the playoffs — I mean, we were talking about it yesterday as a team, I think there may be one or two races, period, that carried over the same tire that we would have raced the last time there.
"And some of these have been completely new and untested tires, so it's been a huge story, I think, from behind the scenes for the teams trying to understand what you're even going to have. I mean, even at least this weekend, we had a chance to adjust on it and...
"Look it's the same for everybody, but it's been chaotic from that standpoint, and you've not been able to really rely on a notebook. It's kind of been more of your best judgment."
All of these combinations forced teams to adjust on the fly to prevent flat tires, spins, and collisions with the wall. Some teams achieved success while dealing with these extra factors.
Denny Hamlin used his veteran experience to save tires and lead the series with six wins. This includes races with new tire setups at Martinsville, Michigan, Dover, and Gateway. Shane van Gisbergen won five road course races, including a rather chaotic Roval race affected by new tires.
Other teams, however, just gained some knowledge while contending with these changes. They saw that they need to make some improvements before heading to Bowman Gray Stadium for the Clash in February.
"Well, I think one thing that we've learned is the more tire (degradation) that Goodyear seems to be putting in the cars, it really appears to be hurting us, the 20 team, a little bit more," Christopher Bell said.
"So short tracks and road courses have been our strength. And while road courses, we're still getting good finishes out of it — obviously, there's one guy (Shane van Gisbergen) that's been really killing us, and he kills us with tire degradation.
And, you know, it's a little bit of the same thing with short tracks. It just seems like the more tire deg we've been getting, the less performance we've had."
The tire changes may not be over just yet. Goodyear and NASCAR have certainly dialed in on some setups that will deliver the requested falloff in 2026, but they also continue to search for something new for Bristol Motor Speedway, in particular.
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Specifically, they are holding a two-day tire test at the short track this week while trying to create a setup that won't drastically change depending on the temperature.
The work continues into the offseason for NASCAR and Goodyear, which the drivers appreciate. They just hope that they will soon have some consistency while competing for wins and championships.
