The playoff race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon will feature a new tire setup, one that Cup Series teams have used in short track races dating back to last November. If you ask Ryan Blaney, that's a good thing.
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"Fall-off is always the key, and I think we're going to get more of that," Blaney said in response to a question from FanBuzz on Tuesday.
According to Goodyear, this tire combination features more grip and more lap time fall-off. This should improve the action on the track as drivers potentially make more passes throughout a run.
This tire debuted last season in the Martinsville elimination race. It then returned for this season's trips to Bowman Gray Stadium, Martinsville Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, and Richmond Raceway.
Blaney has not used this tire yet, but Team Penske teammate Joey Logano took part in a test session at the Loudon track. He completed numerous laps while seeing exactly how the new setup compared to those used in past seasons.
Blaney still has experience using the tire at other events this season, which has created optimism about the challenge he and other drivers will face this weekend.
"At Richmond, I thought it was a really good tire," the 2023 Cup Series champion said. "It had a lot of fall-off. You could kind of make it upset and you pay the penalty for it late, different than a Bristol-type situation, which that's kind of an outlier.
"But I think just what they're gearing for and what they found out was just more fall-off like they've gotten at a couple other places with this combination. And I enjoy that. I think that's the way it should be.
"And Goodyear's done a good job of continuing to experiment and trying to find ways to help the short track tire pay a penalty if you're kind of rude to it early on in the run. And it really kind of shows the flaws in your car when you get 30-plus laps on the tires, maybe less than that."
Blaney does not know how long these tires will last; he and his fellow Cup Series drivers will only have 25-minutes to test them during Saturday's practice.
What he expects is more tire fall-off, significantly more tire management, and drivers moving through the field as each run progresses. He is perfectly fine with that.
